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A partnership between Urbacon and Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ has produced a new data centre near Montreal's financial district, opening on Friday and putting the city within the league of other major North American metropolises with similar centralized data centres.
The $70 million Next Generation Data Centre is located in the Griffintown borough at 544 Rue de l'Inspecteur. It sprawls the site with a multi-level 266,671-square-foot facility to become the only true wholesale and purpose-built data centre in Montreal. Positioned as a global telecom node, the location was championed by the developers for its close proximity to major cities in the United States, an advantageous climate, and favourable hydro rates.
The cutting-edge facility is served by air, rail and road and benefits from access to an educated ICT staff. The seven-storey complex is a harbinger of the sector's success. By 2020, Fonds immobilier de solidarité FTQ expects the data centre sector to grow from 16 to 28 percent, pointing to businesses' tendency to outsource to data centres rather than engage in the cost-intensive process of setting up within their own facilities.
"Quebec's colder climate and affordable power has led to a recent boom in data centre development, responding to increased global demands for data storage," said Peter Russell, vice president of properties and development management at Urbacon. "With the completion of our new facility, Montreal now has a centralized flagship data centre similar to other major metropolitan centres like Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and Miami. We can now offer a world-class facility that meets the highest standards in terms of structural aspects, security, mechanical and electrical systems for a leading edge data centre."
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