For years, North Texas has been one of the nation’s fastest growing data center markets.

And a flood of rental activity in the fourth quarter is likely to bring another wave of construction in this real estate technology market.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area saw the biggest absorption of data center capacity on record in 2021, with most of the activity recorded in the last three months of the year, according to a new report from Cushman & Wakefield.

“2021 has been a dynamic year for multi-tenant data center leasing to D-FW with over 89 megawatts of data center space absorbed,” said Bo Bond, executive general manager of the Center Advisory Group. data from Cushman & Wakefield, in the report. “By mid-year we had a lot of data center options across the Metroplex for our larger customers.

“At the end of the year, most data center vendors are running out of space and many are scrambling to design and build their next buildings. “

Over the past few years, North Texas has seen dramatic growth in data center inventory due to growing demand from businesses and consumers.

But years of construction created an oversupply in the area early last year.

According to the report, D-FW enters 2022 with a very limited turnkey supply of data center space. 2021 saw the company

A surge in demand from users of finance, technology and insurance has swallowed up much of that capacity, Cushman & Wakefield found.

“Basically, in less than six months, we’ve gone from over-supply to a lack of space and power for multi-megawatt transactions in the best locations,” Bond said.

Cushman & Wakefield anticipates an increase in data center development this year to meet expected increases in demand.

“Dallas is home to diverse Fortune 500 clients, dominated by the financial services, insurance, technology and energy industries,” said Ali Greenwood, executive director of the Data Center Advisory Group. “With the record amount of data center space uptake and demand in this market in 2021 and through 2022, we anticipate that supply and labor constraints could challenge new data center delivery times and lead to an appreciation of rental prices in 2022. “

Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the largest data centers in the United States, along with Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, New York, and Northern Virginia.

Two of the largest data center campuses in North Texas are owned by Google in Ellis County and Facebook in North Fort Worth.