Why Finding the Right Spot for Data Centers Is Harder Than Ever in 2025

In 2025, data centers are growing fast—but finding the right location to build one? That’s a whole new challenge.

It’s no longer just about how much land you can get for your budget. The game has changed. Power, people, and politics now sit at the center of site selection, and every data center operator—whether you’re building your first facility or your fiftieth—is feeling the pressure.

Let’s break it down.

1. Power > Property: The Land Crunch Redefined

The most coveted feature of a data center site today isn’t square footage—it’s power.

Developers are chasing locations that can deliver hundreds of megawatts, fast. This urgent demand is fueling fierce competition, especially in well-known data center hotbeds like Northern Virginia, Silicon Valley, and Dallas.

Hyperscalers—think Meta, Amazon, Microsoft—are scooping up massive tracts of land and locking down power early, leaving smaller players scrambling. And when those prime markets hit capacity (which they have), the industry pushes outward.

2. Secondary Markets, Primary Problems

As developers look beyond the big hubs in primary markets, they’re finding fresh opportunities and fresh headaches.

New markets, like West Texas or central Ohio, offer more land and, in some cases, better access to renewable energy. But building in these emerging zones often means jumping through more hoops:

• Complex local zoning and permitting processes
  
  
• Delays due to regional bureaucracy or unfamiliar regulations
  
  
• Skepticism from local communities concerned about resource usage (power, water)

The takeaway? You may find land and power—but not without a long approval timeline and a thoughtful approach to community engagement.

3. Gridlock: Power Transmission Is the New Bottleneck

Even where energy is available, getting it to your facility is a whole other issue.

Transmission bottlenecks—caused by aging infrastructure and regulatory red tape—can delay projects by four years or more. Add that to growing demand from AI workloads, and utilities are being forced to pick and choose which data centers to support.

Sites near nuclear plants, natural gas pipelines, or major renewables with built-in storage are rising in value—not just for power availability, but for long-term grid resilience.

4. The Talent Trap: Building Outside the Edge? Better Have a Hiring Plan.

Power isn’t the only thing in short supply—talent is, too.

As data centers move into rural or secondary markets, they're discovering a major workforce gap.

These locations often lack the specialized talent needed to:

• Build and operate high-tech facilities
  
  
• Manage advanced cooling systems (like liquid cooling)
  
  
• Run AI-optimized infrastructure
  
  
• Maintain physical and cybersecurity protocols

To keep up, companies are investing in local training programs and workforce partnerships. But that takes time—and advanced planning.

5. What the Ideal Site Looks Like (and Why It’s So Rare)

Here’s what every data center developer is chasing in 2025:

• Ample land (preferably shovel-ready)
  
  
• Reliable, scalable power with nearby generation and transmission
  
  
• Grid stability
  
  
• A ready-made, skilled workforce
  
  
• Supportive local government and community
  
  Finding all of this in one location? That’s like spotting a unicorn. Which is why strategic land acquisition—based on layered data, market trends, and deep intel—is more critical than ever.

Final Thoughts

In today’s high-stakes site race, every competitive advantage counts. The Acres Data Center Index gives you the edge to find, evaluate, and act on opportunities—before the rest of the market catches up.

Whether you're scouting your next site or mapping long-term growth, Acres gives you the visibility to:

• Identify emerging data center hubs and predict your competitors’ next moves.
  
  
• Visualize critical location insights, like infrastructure and demographics.
  
  
• Spot unannounced developments early and forecast business impact.

With data you won’t find anywhere else, make moves your competitors won’t see coming. Talk to our sales team about the Acres Data Center Index today.