Stack, Hickory plan Australian data centre expansion

US-based data centre operator Stack Infrastructure has partnered with Melbourne builder Hickory to expand into Australia.

The company has revealed plans to construct five data centres in Melbourne, Canberra and Perth by 2023.

It plans to build two 36MW data centres in West Melbourne’s Truganina, a 28MW data centre in Hume, Canberra and a 24MW data centre in Wangara, Perth.

The Melbourne facilities are under construction, while the Canberra and Perth facilities have received development approval. All four are expected to be delivered in 2023.

Stack said the data centres will enable "hyperscalers and enterprise clients to address the evolving requirements in Australia and the APAC region more broadly".

It said the developments are "strategically located with robust access to power and network offering scalability and reliability for higher rack densities and floor loading specifications".

APAC CEO Pithambar Gona said the expansion builds on recent developments in Japan, exemplifying its focus on "establishing a scalable presence in core regional markets".

“The partnership with Hickory demonstrates our ability to leverage our partnership model and expertise to the benefit of our customers while attracting leading data centre talent regionally to the Stack platform,” he said.

Stack said the transaction was still subject to review by the Foreign Investment Review Board and approval by the  Treasurer.

As part of the partnership, Hickory's data centre management team led by Joel O’Halloran, Michael Gunton, and James Veness will join the Stack global platform.

“Hickory is well-positioned to help concurrently develop efficient facilities across three key locations,” Hickory chief executive officer Michael Argyrou said.  

“Partnering with Stack enables us to leverage an outstanding global operating platform and innovative capital solutions to target hyperscale customer growth in key markets.”

Hickory's entry into the data centre market began in June last year when it launched its new business unit and began constructing the Truganina data centre in December.