Digital Realty, one of the world’s largest data center providers, is significantly expanding its presence in Georgia with plans to develop a major new campus just south of Atlanta.

Operating through its Digital Fort Gillem LLC affiliate, the company recently filed a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. The proposal details plans for a large-scale, two-building data center campus in Clayton County’s Forest Park, roughly nine miles from downtown Atlanta.

The new facility, known as the ATL15 and ATL16 site, will be developed on a 97-acre parcel and span approximately 1.9 million square feet (176,515 sqm) of data center space. According to DCD, the project is expected to deliver up to 200 megawatts (MW) of capacity.

The land earmarked for development was once part of Fort Gillem, a U.S. Army base established in 1941 and decommissioned in 2011. The base was later repurposed into the Gillem Logistics Center, a 1,048-acre business park now managed by Robinson Weeks Partners. While the area was originally intended for logistics and warehousing, a new DRI application was required because the planned data center project represents a “significant change” in use from the site’s original designation.

Digital Realty is reportedly planning to invest around $2 billion in the campus, which will be linked to its existing Atlanta-area infrastructure.

Currently, the company’s Atlanta footprint includes:

• ATL11 at 101 Aquila Way in Lithia Springs
• ATL13 located at 56 Marietta Street, a well-known carrier hotel in downtown Atlanta
• ATL14 at 250 Williams Street NW

These three facilities comprise a combined 484,000 square feet (44,900 sqm), according to the company’s website.

The planned expansion reinforces Atlanta’s growing prominence as a major data center hub. The metro area already hosts operations from CoreSite, Google, Microsoft, Switch, Flexential, H5, and QTS, many of which have established footprints in Lithia Springs and Douglasville.

More broadly, the Peach State has emerged as a hotbed for digital infrastructure development. Over the past few years, more than a dozen DRI applications have been submitted for data center campuses throughout the region, spanning tens of millions of square feet. While many of these proposals center around Atlanta’s core tech corridor in Fulton County, activity has been growing outward to new areas like Clayton County.

This latest move by Digital Realty signals both growing demand and the company’s long-term commitment to the Southeast. If approved, the Forest Park campus would represent one of the largest single data center developments in Georgia to date.

Originally reported by Dan Swinhoe in Data Center Dynamics.