As tech companies fight for available space to build out data centers that will power next-generation AI, a new opportunity has emerged in the corporate parks that are sitting empty in suburban and rural areas of the US, workspace CEOs said at Semafor World Economy.
Companies are increasingly moving their offices closer to cities where available talent is, leaving behind sprawling office campuses. Town leaders don’t want them converted to industrial plants because of associated trucking traffic, data centers bring concerns about power, and residential housing doesn’t bring in the kind of tax revenue that businesses do, said John Santora, CEO of WeWork.
“What’s happening now is they realize as they begin to sit there for four or five years, they don’t have the tax base either way,” Santora said Thursday in Washington, DC. While some are becoming residential spaces, “you’re seeing some shift to data centers, because [the towns] need the cash.”
Diane Hoskins, global cochair at design firm Gensler, echoed the sentiment: “That industrial park — it might be a data center,” she said.
Residents in areas where data centers are coming online have fought against them, citing concerns about energy and water consumption, noise pollution, and what they claim as a general unsightliness. In response, some tech companies have hired design firms like Gensler to spruce up the exteriors, Semafor previously reported.
WeWork is a sponsor of Semafor World Economy. John Santora made his comments in an unsponsored editorial interview.