Adaptive Reuse

Adaptive reuse is the conversion of an existing building into a modern data center instead of constructing a new one. The building may be an old data center, warehouse, factory or office block. It can shorten delivery sharply: GreenSquareDC delivered its Sydney SYD1 first stage in about eight months by keeping the structure of a 1995 data center. Developers pursue it for existing grid connections, zoning and planning approvals, which are often the slowest part of a build. The trade-offs are floor-to-floor height, structural load limits for heavy GPU racks, and retrofitting cooling and power distribution. Reuse projects tend to start small, in the 10–30 MW range, and expand in stages.