US data center operator DataBank has submitted a Development of Regional Impact application with the Georgia Department of Community Affairs to develop a major new campus in Cartersville, roughly 42 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta.

The project, internally designated as Project Indo, would represent the company's largest single site in the Atlanta region and reflect the broader surge in data center investment that has reshaped what was once considered a secondary market.

Project Scope and Timeline

Located at 218 Industrial Park Road in Bartow County, the proposed campus would span 69 acres and deliver a total of 1.1 million square feet, equivalent to approximately 102,193 square meters, at a capacity of 200 megawatts.

DataBank has filed for a 288 MW utility grid connection to support the development. At full build-out, the project is estimated to carry a value of USD 2.4 billion.

The first phase of the campus could go live as early as 2032. The site is currently owned by Colloid Environmental Technologies Company, known as CETCO, a construction materials firm.

The existing manufacturing site on the property is positioned in proximity to a substation, a logistical advantage that typically factors heavily in data center site selection decisions.

DataBank's Existing Atlanta Footprint

DataBank currently operates six facilities in and around Atlanta, totaling 177 MW of capacity across 751,270 square feet.

The Cartersville campus would exceed all of those existing sites in scale, making it not only the company's largest presence in the Atlanta metro area but also its most geographically distant from the city center.

Founded in 2005, DataBank operates more than 65 data centers across the United States, spanning 25 metro markets.

Atlanta's Growing Data Center Market

The Cartersville filing is part of a wider wave of data center development proposals that have been sweeping across Georgia in recent years.

Atlanta and its surrounding counties have traditionally carried the designation of a Tier 2 data center market, a classification that distinguishes it from primary hubs such as Northern Virginia or Dallas.

However, rising demand has triggered a significant volume of new proposals throughout the state.

Development of Regional Impact applications for more than a dozen campuses have been filed over the last couple of years, collectively representing tens of millions of square feet across dozens of individual buildings.

While many of those proposals are concentrated in Atlanta's established data center corridor around Fulton County, filings have also been submitted for projects spread more broadly across Georgia.

DataBank's Project Indo in Bartow County extends that geographic expansion further, placing a large-scale hyperscale-adjacent campus in a county that sits outside the traditional metro core.

The proximity of the site to an existing substation and its location on an established industrial parcel suggest the company has factored infrastructure readiness into its selection of the location.

Regulatory Process

The Development of Regional Impact process, administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, is a state-level review mechanism applied to large-scale development projects that are deemed likely to have effects beyond the boundaries of a single local jurisdiction.

Filing a DRI application is a standard procedural step for developments of this magnitude in Georgia and does not itself constitute final approval or a construction commitment. DataBank's submission initiates the review process for the Cartersville campus, setting the stage for further evaluation before construction can begin.

With a projected first-phase launch of 2032, the development timeline allows for a multi-year permitting, design, and construction process ahead of any operational activity at the site.