DC BLOX has secured $1.15 billion in green loan financing to continue construction of its Atlanta West Hyperscale Campus in Lithia Springs in Douglas County. The 54-acre site will total about 1.25 million square feet and is designed for 200 megawatts of critical load with capacity to add another 80 megawatts. The project’s largest building, at 760,000 square feet, is the largest single facility currently underway in the metro. Phased delivery is scheduled through 2027.

The development is part of a pipeline in which data centers account for roughly 23 of the 42 industrial projects under construction in Atlanta — including warehouses, distribution centers and other such facilities underway.

Palmetto and South Fulton have drawn some of the metro’s largest hyperscale projects, including Microsoft’s Project Fulton — a 116-acre site with four buildings between 200,000 and 245,000 square feet, all of which are scheduled for completion in 2025 as part of the “East US 3” Azure cloud region serving the southeastern United States.

In Lithia Springs, large, industrial-zoned parcels have attracted Switch’s Keep Campus, owned by DigitalBridge, as well as T5@Atlanta III, which includes at least five new buildings ranging from 160,000 to 476,000 square feet. DataBank is also expanding its ATL5 and ATL6 facilities here with deliveries planned through 2026.

Meanwhile, Fayetteville’s largest project is QTS Realty Trust’s Atlanta 2 Campus, which will consist of three 440,000-square-foot buildings. The Blackstone-owned operator is backed by Sumitomo Mitsui Bank financing.

Outside of the metro’s primary hubs, Amazon Data Services closed on 984 acres in Lamar County in August for $270 million. The purchase positions the site for future hyperscale development.

Georgia Power estimates that data centers could require more than 4,000 megawatts by 2028, compared with about 1,200 megawatts a decade ago. In August, the utility filed for approval of a five-year plan to add 10,000 megawatts of new generation, citing the sector as a primary driver. Notably, the Atlanta City Council has banned new facilities near residential areas and along the BeltLine. Also this month, DeKalb County adopted a 100-day moratorium on new data centers while drafting zoning rules that would require buffers from homes, schools and business districts.

Atlanta Industrial Market Figures Through Q2

Across the broader industrial market and per Matrix Research Data, Atlanta had 9.96 million square feet of industrial space under construction in June — the fourth-largest pipeline in the South behind Dallas-Fort Worth; Houston; and Memphis, Tenn.

The metro’s industrial vacancy rate was 8.2% at the time, up 250 basis points from a year earlier. Additionally, in-place industrial rents averaged $6.35 per square foot, up 8.5% year-over-year, while leases signed in the past 12 months averaged $8.79 per square foot. Atlanta’s rent growth ranks second-fastest in the country, behind only Miami.