City of Goodyear

Compass Datacenters plans to build a data center campus in Goodyear with the first two buildings opening by the end of 2019.

Construction is underway for a data center campus in Goodyear. It marks the third campus announcement for the city this year. 

Compass Datacenters will turn 225 acres of former farmland into a campus with long, narrow single-story buildings. At full build-out, Compass said the eight centers will provide more than 1.8 million square feet, equivalent to 31 football fields.

“Anybody who has a smartphone, anybody who stores anything in the cloud, it goes to one of these data centers, which is why there’s such increased demand for these types of data center campuses,” said Lori Gary, economic development director for Goodyear.

She said depending on a company’s plans, a data center campus could employ between 20 and 60 people in higher-wage jobs. Real estate and construction sales taxes generated by the projects help the city build its economic base.

“And with those dollars the city is able to then able to do things our residents want,” Gary said. “You know, they want good roads to drive on. They want a safe community and so we’re able to spend those dollars on police and fire-not just on personnel but on apparatus and machinery and equipment.”

“Greater Phoenix is a natural next step for Compass since it’s an important location for cloud and hyperscale customers, due to its geographic location, availability of fiber connectivity, affordable cost of data center operations, and the rarity of natural disasters,” Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass, said in a prepared statement.

Two other companies, Vantage and Stream Data Centers, announced plans this year to develop data centers in Goodyear.

A report released earlier this year by real estate services firm CBRE found metro Phoenix ranked second in the nation when it came to construction of data centers. Northern Virginia came in first.