Data center construction phases, from the permit record: how Digital Realty's Charlotte campus is being built

On October 26, 2026, Charlotte City Council voted unanimously to extend its pause on new data centers to October 18, 2027. The pause was due to end on November 5. It stops the city from accepting, processing or approving applications for new data center projects, and it leaves projects already approved alone. So for the next year, the data center work in Charlotte is the work already permitted. Mecklenburg County's permit records show what that work is, the order it's being built in, and who is named at each stage.

Quick answers

Data center construction phases at Digital Realty's west Charlotte campus

Digital Realty's campus off Moores Chapel Road, which the county's records call CLT13, is the biggest job in the permit records TarSignal reads. Its owners of record are Digital Moores Chapel LLC entities with a Dallas address. The permits are filed at three addresses: 12899 Moores Chapel Rd, 9505 Lakebrook Rd (with a suite number for each data hall) and 13101 Moores Chapel Rd. In date order, they show the job going up in stages.

The order, and the gaps between stages

The earliest permits aren't for a building. The first, on January 7, was a retaining wall at the substation site. Retaining walls worth $9.3 million followed in March. The medium-voltage electrical permits came next, on April 22 and May 8, naming Aldridge Electric five weeks before there was a shell permit. Then, on May 29, 142 days after the first permit, the county issued the shell for a 1,294,518 sq ft building, together with a $150.3 million permit for the powered base building and the shell's electrical, mechanical and plumbing permits. Two weeks later came the main power package: switchgear, generators, UPS systems and telecom duct banks.

The data halls came fast after that. Between July 6 and July 9, six suites were permitted at $39.8 million to $42.0 million each, 38 to 41 days after the shell. Two more followed on August 31 and September 4. Each suite arrived as a set issued the same day: the upfit itself, two electrical permits, a mechanical and a plumbing permit, and on most a fire permit, filed with the same trade contractors suite after suite. Icon Mechanical replaced McKenney's on one suite.

Not every permit is new work. On October 23 the county issued 12 permits for suites 100 and 105, including two upfits declared at $41.1 million and $39.8 million. They're revisions to approved plans, numbered as revisions of the original projects, so they repeat values already counted. Anyone totalling data center spending from permit records needs to leave them out.

Uptown: a second Digital Realty building, one stage behind

On the east side of uptown, Digital Realty is building again, under the owner name Digital Trade Street 2 LLC. At 712 E 5th St, which the records call CLT15, footing and foundation permits for "a new shell/PBB data center building" were issued on August 4 to Whiting-Turner. 69 days later, on October 12, the county issued the shell for a 164,000 sq ft building, a $15.0 million powered base building permit, and twelve trade permits. Those name Rosendin for electrical, MSS Solutions for mechanical and fire alarm, Precision Plumbing, and Schneider Electric for controls. A $1.87 million tower crane permit was still in review.

Next door, at 725 E Trade St, demolition permits were issued to RCI Demolition on February 3 and July 21, on a record the county names "CLT16 Uptown." So Digital Realty has three Charlotte buildings at three stages: data halls in west Charlotte, a shell uptown, and a demolition beside it.

Durham: what happens after the shell

CyrusOne's DUR2 building on Northeast Creek Parkway in Durham is further along, and its permits show what comes after the shell: a long run of smaller fit-out jobs. Durham's records give issue dates only.

In the 27 months after the shell permit, the site had ten more permits, from $21,450 to $9.6 million. Compu Dynamics, a data center specialist, holds six of them: busway, liquid cooling, containment and storage rooms. The first liquid-cooling package came a year after the shell. A building like this keeps generating trade work for years, in pieces sized for specialist subcontractors.

What it means for subcontractors and suppliers

• Electrical and power equipment: the medium-voltage work is permitted first. In west Charlotte, Aldridge Electric was named on substation distribution five weeks before the shell, and the switchgear, generator and UPS package came two weeks after it. If you sell medium-voltage gear, cable or duct bank work, the site and substation permits are the earliest signal.
• Mechanical and plumbing: each data hall is a repeat of the last. The same mechanical and plumbing contractors were named on suite after suite, so whoever wins the first suite is usually on the next.
• Specialty trades: after the shell, the work keeps coming in smaller jobs. Durham's busway, containment and liquid-cooling packages ran from about $40,000 to $731,342 each.
• Sub-tier contractors: in Mecklenburg County, the trade contractor is named in each permit's project name ("CL13 - Suite 105 (MCKENNEY'S INC)"), even where the contractor field shows the general contractor. The general contractor and its trade partners are the people to call about the next phase.
• Anyone counting the buildout: leave out revisions, and check that "In Scope" and "Site Works" records aren't repeats of a permit already counted. TarSignal already takes those repeats out of Permit Search.
• In Charlotte specifically: until the pause ends, new work comes from projects already approved. On these permits, that means the remaining fit-out at CLT13, the uptown shell at CLT15 and whatever follows the CLT16 demolition.

How to follow a data center job in Permit Search

• Search by address: an address search matches every address that starts with what you type, so "9505 LAKEBROOK RD" brings up every data hall suite in west Charlotte, and "712 E 5TH ST" the uptown building.
• Search by contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie, Whiting-Turner, DPR Construction and Compu Dynamics each bring up their other North Carolina jobs, which shows where the same teams are working next.
• Set a Project Alert (Pro) for commercial permits in Mecklenburg, Durham or Wake with a minimum value, so the next shell, power package or data hall reaches you the morning after we read it.

How these numbers were counted

• West Charlotte campus: every permit whose owner of record is a Digital Moores Chapel LLC entity, at 12899 and 13101 Moores Chapel Rd and 9505 Lakebrook Rd and its suites, issued January 7 to October 23, 2026. That's 83 issued permits. 18 are revisions, numbered by the county as revisions of an earlier project, and are left out of every value. Scope records that repeat another permit aren't counted. Two utility applications weren't yet issued. The $494.4 million also includes a $35,000 conduit permit issued on October 20.
• Declared value is the construction cost the applicant put on the permit. Most trade permits on these jobs carry none, so the totals are mostly the building and upfit permits. They don't include land or equipment that isn't part of the building.
• The Mecklenburg records TarSignal reads carry issue dates, not application dates, so every gap above is between issue dates. Contractor names come from each permit's contractor and project-name fields.
• Durham: all permits at 2223 Northeast Creek Pkwy from January 2024, by issue date. The table shows a selection; the text counts all ten permits issued after the shell.
• The moratorium dates are from WBTV's and WFAE's reports of the October 26, 2026, council vote. The revision definition is from Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement, and the powered base building definition is from Data Center Knowledge's description of Digital Realty's terms.