Canada’s largest city could be getting a pair of major data storage projects as two giant American companies have completed significant land acquisitions of over $90 million in the Toronto area.
Prologis, the world's largest industrial real estate investment trust, recently received conditional approval from the city of Mississauga to build a data storage facility on what was known as the last working farm in Mississauga. Prologis purchased the 40-acre property known as 0 Tenth Line West for $92 million last December, according to CoStar data.
The data storage industry has become a focus of the real estate industry in Canada in recent times as the federal government announced a $2-billion package to help companies access and build data storage facilities. Prime Minister Mark Carney named Evan Solomon to the newly created post of minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario earlier this year.
Solomon told the Globe & Mail this summer that he is open to foreign investment in the data sector, a real estate category that could see a compound annual growth rate of 10.26% from 2023 to 2029, culminating in a market value estimation of $9.04 billion by 2029, according to a report from Encor Advisors last October.
The land was part of a 52-acre, family-owned farm for over 170 years. Provincial authorities expropriated part of the property in 1957 for a highway project and the family turned the farm into mainly an egg production facility.
The farm is located in the northwest corner of Mississauga and is bordered by Highway 401 and the Highway 407 on ramp. Provincial authorities had previously expressed interest in the property to build another highway.
Rezoning is required
Prologis will have to advance its data storage project within confines set by Mississauga municipal authorities, a city official told CoStar News in an email.
"A zoning bylaw amendment application will be required to allow any new uses, including a potential data centre," the representative stated. "The applicant is aware of this requirement and is working with staff on a submission."
A Prologis representative said its Mississauga project in is in the nascent stage.
"It’s still very early in the process, and we are looking at a range of potential development options for the site that would benefit the Mississauga community," a company representative stated in an email.
Equinix joins in Toronto land rush
In a separate, more recent deal, data storage developer Equinix became the second San Francisco Bay-area company to spend over $90 million for a piece of land in the Toronto area.
Equinix paid $94 million for 21.1 acres on the north side of Orlando Avenue in a deal with Winnipeg-based Canada Life Assurance Co., according to CoStar data.
The property is located near Highway 404 and 16th Avenue in Richmond Hill, Ontario, roughly 30 kilometres north of downtown Toronto.
Representatives of Equinix and the city of Richmond Hill did not immediately reply to email queries on the future usage of the site.
The Toronto area leads Canada in data storage facilities with 86 in the area, followed by Montreal with 58 and Vancouver with 30, according to datacentermap.com
The government of Alberta has enacted policies designed to attract more data storage facilities to the province in recent times, to add to the 16 data storage facilities in Calgary and 15 in Edmonton.