A massive multi-gigawatt data center park is being proposed outside Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas.
Ryan Hughes, founder of real estate firm Sailfish, this week announced Comanche Circle, a 2,600-acre master-planned data center community in Hood County’s Tolar.
Sailfish describes itself as a real estate investment and operating platform for the acquisition, development, and operation of infill industrial and data center properties throughout high-growth Sun Belt markets. The company is led by Hughes, previously of HighBrook Investors and Cushman & Wakefield.
Hughes said Sailfish Digital Ventures (SDV) will develop nine data center campuses with a cumulative 5GW of power delivered via a combination of behind-the-meter natural gas generation and on-grid power, should it get sufficient funding and customer demand.
Phase one of the park will reportedly comprise five campuses, for a total of 3.2GW:
- Campus A: 280 acres with ten buildings offering a total of 1,000MW.
- Campus B: 210 acres with six buildings offering a total of 600MW.
- Campus C: 160 acres with six buildings offering a total of 600MW.
- Campus D: 145 acres with six buildings offering a total of 600MW.
- Campus E: 110 acres with four buildings offering a total of 400MW.
Hughes said the site will feature up to 600MW of behind-the-meter capacity delivered within 24 months. Some 400 acres are said to be reserved for longer lead-time, behind-the-meter solutions, including on-site SMRs and solar.
“Within 24 months, SDV will deliver up to 600MW of power to Comanche Circle,” Hughes said. “Phase I's remaining 2,600MW [will be] deployed as soon as late 2027 and 2028 via a combination of further power island deliveries and on-grid power delivery from our partners on the utility side.”
Sailfish is finalizing site plans and talking with hyperscalers about conceptual layouts.
Tolar is a city located some 45 miles southwest of Fort Worth. According to the 2020 census, Tolar has a population of under 1,000 people. It is located close to Vistra Corp.'s 2,400MW Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant.
Hughes told DCD: “SDV is built around the premise that traditional grid interconnections simply can’t keep pace with hyperscalers’ power demands, especially as AI accelerates energy requirements. Our on-site natural gas power islands will let customers scale quickly with the reliability they require.”
The company told DCD it has partnered with a natural gas generation developer and aims to build behind-the-meter natural gas generation alongside the data center campuses.
Founded in 2023, Sailfish is yet to deliver a data center. The company recently filed to develop a 1.78 million sq ft data center campus outside Atlanta, Georgia. The company is planning a four-building, 800MW campus on 344 acres.
Including the Social Circle development, Hughes said that Sailfish is in the early stages of developing 17 data center campus campuses across the US.
"These developments cover 4,700 acres in Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, and Council Bluffs, with a majority of its proposed developments adjacent to existing natural gas and nuclear power plants," he said.
In Council Bluffs, Iowa, the company is planning a ten-building, 1GW campus powered in part by on-site natural gas generation on a 306-acre site.
Outside Austin, Texas, Sailfish is planning a four-building, 800MW campus in Kyle, again with on-site power generation to meet part of the demand.
At another site outside Austin in New Braunfels, the company is planning an eight-building, 800MW campus on 196 acres set to be powered by a mix of on-site, behind-the-meter, and grid sources.
The company aims to deliver 10GW of power "as quickly as possible" via on-site power islands and eventual grid connections at these sites.
Sailfish aims to offer build-to-suit or lease options to hyperscalers. Hughes says the company has seen "immediate interest" from hyperscalers looking to secure power before 2030.
In terms of funding, DCD understands the company is in discussions with a number of digital and energy infrastructure investment firms.
