Japanese company’s East Valley data center campus moves forward

Article originally posted on Phoenix Business Journal on May 14, 2026

A massive data center project planned in Mesa is moving forward.

Mesa Planning Commission members cast their votes on May 13 in a quiet and nearly empty chamber, ending a 10-minute meeting with a unanimous vote that recommended approval of the 2.2 million-square-foot data center project.

The Wednesday meeting stood in contrast to a raucous four-hour meeting Chandler City Council experienced last December when a group of red-clad attendees formed a striking opposition to a data center project known as Price Road Innovation Campus. It’s one of many data center projects in the Valley facing increasing scrutiny.

The 173 acres of land at 10126 E. Pecos Road were acquired by Tokyo-based NTT Data Group Corp. in March 2025 for $300 million. The company has plans to construct a seven-building data center campus with a private power substation as well as a new Salt River Project substation.

NTT asked the Commission for approval to rezone the site to allow for fewer parking spaces (from 1,157 to 385), the city staff report says. The company also requested a Council Use Permit that would allow a major utility for its private substation, and a major site plan modification to allow for the 2,257,581-square-foot campus.

Commission members did not say when the project might be reviewed by City Council, but in 2024 Council approved the “annexation, rezoning and a CUP for a data center” for a different developer. That project fell through, however, so NTT has to go through city channels to revise entitlements for its project.

NTT’s project also doesn’t go against Mesa’s Ordinance No. 5957, because the application was submitted Aug. 4, 2025, before the data center ordinance went into effect Aug. 8, the city said in the report. The site was also previously rezoned and approved for a data center, and the owner’s rezoning request doesn’t modify the land use on the site, the report said.

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