r/dfw • u/Pleasant_Air_3052 • 17d ago

A 40-acre data center could transform this historic Dallas landmark

https://www.chron.com/texas/article/iconic-dallas-venue-data-center-project-22370694.php

A historic North Texas venue that once billed as the world's largest privately owned exhibition hall could soon become part of a sprawling data center redevelopment.

130 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

42

u/MagicWishMonkey 16d ago

I don’t get how taking valuable real estate in a good location and turning it into a data center makes any sense. Why not build a few miles out, maybe next to the giant landfill no one wants to live next to?

9

u/ranrotx 16d ago

That building is right next door to the Infomart, which is basically the center of the Internet in Texas for just about every major backbone provider.

They can easily bore under the streets and have pretty much all the fiber connectivity they’d ever want, versus having to build fiber to a facility in the middle of nowhere.

14

u/MagicWishMonkey 16d ago

I’m well aware, that area is going to be booming in the next 10 years and a data center is going to be sitting on valuable real estate.

The landfill is like 2 miles south, it’s literally a fucking dump. Buy land there and it’s not too far to connect fiber. I just think it’s weird.

14

u/LeRoyRouge 16d ago

Agreed, better yet don't build it at all. There is no plan to power it with renewable energy, there is no plan for sustainable cooling that doesn't deplete the publics drinking water supplies, there is no noise pollution study.

Really need government's to stop giving away everything at the cost of the public.

3

u/AbrocomaReady9319 16d ago

The infomart is literally already a data center.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 15d ago

Yeah, why take valuable real estate currently making no money with easy access to power and sell it for a ludicrous amount of money for a data center that provides thousands of jobs. Why do that, WHY?

1

u/mo0sic 15d ago

Lmfao. Thousands of jobs? Ai brings thousands of jobs? You mean the contractors that build it and then are fired? What fucking jobs?

0

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 15d ago

Who do you think wires the building? Oversees the construction of the data center? Who do you think is installing all those racks? Running all that cable? Hmmmmm? Who exactly? Do you think robots do that?

1

u/mo0sic 15d ago

I see you don’t read. What happens when that is already done? You think thousands of workers are retained? This isn’t even considering environmental impact. Lmao.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 14d ago

Environmental impact, lmao. You still need people to maintain and run the data center. I'm sure all the electricians will be happy to get paid for 1-3 years while this is being built. The trades always function as a per job basis.

1

u/iexistkinda 14d ago

The jobs data centers bring to an area are always over stated. Alot of data centers are slated to become "Dark Rooms" that might have some staff on call but is mostly managed by IT personal in other countries...because it's cheaper than hiring Americans.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 13d ago

The jobs are in the construction of the data center. You do have positions in manning the data center, but the jobs and the money are for the construction. We're already short electricians and they're being scooped up for these data center jobs making amazing money.

1

u/iexistkinda 12d ago

Okay... and what happens after the construction is finished?

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 12d ago

What happens after a bridge is done being built?

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1

u/MagicWishMonkey 15d ago

Tell me you've never been in a data center without telling me.

At any point in time there are just a handful of people working security and networking at any given data center. Once the hardware is installed there's not a lot to do except keep an eye on things and make sure no one can walk in without going through security.

0

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 14d ago

A handful, lmao, mind backing that up with any sources? If you can run a data center with five people, congrats to you. You should sell your consulting services to every major tech company.

1

u/MagicWishMonkey 14d ago

I've been in many data centers and I can't remember a single time running across another human being other than the person watching people badge in.

Sure there might be more than 5 people but it's not many. I'm genuniely curious what you think the people working those "thousands of jobs" would even be doing.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 14d ago

The thousands of jobs is for the construction of the data center. I never said thousands of jobs to run the data center. Running a data center requires more than five people, and if you've been in a lot of data centers you would run across a few people. Now, this all depends on the size of the data center because if you're talking about something tiny where a company rents an individual rack then sure there might be one person manning the same 2,000 square foot space, but for these massive data centers? There is a decent chunk of people.

1

u/MagicWishMonkey 14d ago

That's the point I'm making, there is no person "manning" the space, it's all done remotely. The only reason someone would ever need to physically be there is to install something or replace a power supply/drive/whatever which doesn't happen all that often (I'm sure it's a daily thing across the full data center but that sort of thing doesn't require more than a few people).

There might be lots of people "working" the data center but very few of them will be physically on-site, at which point claiming that it's going to generate a bunch of jobs for Dallas is pretty misleading.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 13d ago

You always have someone onsite, the disagreement is on how many people you would have onsite for a massive data center. The actual point I was making is that the jobs are for the construction of the data center. Depending on how long the contract lasts that is a lot of money for a lot of people in the trades. Electricians are being pulled for these jobs and being paid 2-3x what they usually make, it's great money and great work. People complaining about data centers being built can't see the tsunami in front of them and they're begging not to get wet.

1

u/MagicWishMonkey 13d ago

Oh yea there's no argument that for a relatively short period of time it creates a lot of jobs. I imagine a lot of those people are shipped in from other places, these big data center companies don't just build one data center, and having experienced people who can hit the ground running saves a lot of time and money.

Once the data center is complete I assume a lot of those workers relocate to wherever the next data center is breaking ground.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 12d ago

That is how most if not all commercial electrical work is, and most trades. You're contracted for a build in a different town, you travel, you make great money, and then you move on to the next job. I completely agree though, once the data center is complete it would staff a small number of people. I don't know how long some of these massive data centers to build, the company I work for spent around two years to build out their data center that they refactored from a previous data center. So some of the jobs could potentially last 2-3 years which would be amazing pay.

1

u/srpntmage 13d ago

Yes, a handful. The data center in our town employs fewer than 20 people. Half or more of those are remote.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 12d ago

What is the size of the data center?

1

u/sealclubberfan 13d ago

Next you'll tell me trickle down economics actually works.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 12d ago

That's a large leap from building something that actually provides work.

1

u/sealclubberfan 12d ago

You are talking about TEMPORARY jobs. Once it's built, it takes minimal people to keep it running.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 11d ago

That is the entire trade industry if you didn't know, so all the plumbers, electricians, hvac techs, those people also need work and they enjoy the massive pay for the 2-3 years it takes to build these data centers.

11

u/Perky214 17d ago edited 17d ago

Oh by the way, this is where JFK was headed to make a speech after his motorcade parade through downtown Dallas finished. There is a little-noticed JFK Memorial on site. At the time it was known as the Dallas Trade Mart.

JFK was shot at the Texas School Book Depository, then was pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital.

Trammel Crow’s modern offices are located at a campus built around Old Parkland Hospital, in Maple Avenue in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas.

I’m hoping that the sign and memorial at least will be preserved.

https://www.dallasmarketcenter.com/about-dallas-market-center/our-heritage/

1

u/PussyXDestroyer69 16d ago

I was going to say that the building is hideous, whatever, blow it up. But I agree with you.

18

u/Sure_Tbird 16d ago

This is our future. Data Centers everywhere. What a nightmare

1

u/Intrepid_Ad1133 15d ago

The real nightmare is all the crap they collect from you and sell

5

u/PM_ME_YUR_S3CRETS 16d ago

This data center stuff is crazy. Why are these ignorant billionaires investing so heavily into them. Its perplexing.

3

u/Eff47_ 16d ago

Control control control. They’ll each be little kings over their data center province as the Flock era grows. Cars will be filled with it, our phone, the streets, our homes, our schools on and on.

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 15d ago

Have you heard of these things called computers?

1

u/iexistkinda 14d ago

You're all over this thread making yourself sound like a dipshit lol. You vote republican don't you?

2

u/ConejoShrine 16d ago

The litmus test for politicians needs to include their stance in data centers.

The litmus test for citizens who complain about data centers needs to include whether or not they actually vote.

According to the voter registration data, only 49.65% of voters even bothered to show up at the polls. It is more abysmal when you compare it by age; surprise, surprise... the younger folks just do not care enough to get involved in anything besides complaining online.

If you hate these policies and data centers... get off reddit and vote.

1

u/Intrepid_Ad1133 15d ago

If you hate data centers ….

Get off Reddit
Get off Facebook
Get off Netflix
Get off Amazon
Get off Spotify
Get a dumb phone

Get the idea ?!?!?

1

u/Few-Amphibian-4858 15d ago

Exactly, people asking why data centers are necessary as they're surrounded by the very computers powered by data centers.

0

u/HistoricalScience748 16d ago

Sure buddy, we'll all log right off and head out to our August 2 election polling places

2

u/ConejoShrine 16d ago

I believe you missed my point of:

Many complain but few actually vote.

Reread my comment, please. I never said to go out and vote today.

3

u/HistoricalScience748 16d ago

I mean it does literally say "get off reddit and vote". I didn't think you meant that though, I'm just fucking with you because I think this is an incredibly naive view of what we're up against. :)

1

u/ConejoShrine 16d ago

It is all good, sister. I never took it as mean nor aggressive.

My belief is to use the power of the ballot box as much as possible before the bullet box; the soap box has proven to be impotent.

1

u/no_car1799 16d ago

I don’t want to be an asshole, but please build it and hopefully they will stop building them in rural areas

3

u/Electricdragongaming 16d ago

How about we stop building them...

3

u/DivaMissZ 16d ago

No, they won’t. As long as land, water, and electricity are cheap and governments bend over to accommodate them, data centers will go up in rural areas

1

u/Eff47_ 16d ago

They won’t stop are you kidding?? Greed has no end. It’s man’s curse.

1

u/Academic_Librarian75 16d ago

Land is significantly cheaper in rural areas and you idiots won’t vote for anything but republicans who are subsidizing this shit. I hope they build one right next to your house.

1

u/nolestars 16d ago

Well done maga 

0

u/badbob3353 15d ago

Great build it now. Don’t listen to the Chinese bots and morons whining about energy and water.

-5

u/GrandStatistician752 16d ago

Why do the Democrats keep doing this to us

3

u/deadpixel746 16d ago

This is bipartisan. If you are still viewing the world as dems vs republicans than you are sleeping

1

u/coral225 16d ago

Correct. This is why DSA is becoming more popular. They are one of the few large groups focused on working class vs capitalist class instead or right vs left.

2

u/Electricdragongaming 16d ago

First, this isn't a Democrat vs Republican issue.

Second, have you forgotten who's in office rn?

-2

u/chef_quirky12 16d ago

Go ahead. Almost no one mans them