KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 19): AREA Real Estate Advisory Sdn Bhd has completed a commissioned feasibility study to assess the viability of a freehold industrial site located at the Delapan Special Border Economic Zone (Delapan SBEZ). The site has been selected to be developed into a hyperscale data centre park called the AREA Data Centre Campus (ADCC).

Featuring a free commercial and industrial zone, the 4,400-acre Delapan SBEZ is located at the northern end of the North–South Expressway and Malaysia Federal Route 1, near the border crossing to Thailand.

As part of the larger Delapan SBEZ, the 156-acre site of ADCC is located at the Delapan East Zone 1. The green data centre hub has a gross development value of RM15 billion.

According to a statement issued on Thursday (Oct 19), the feasibility study confirmed that the ADCC site has an appropriate ecosystem to facilitate hyper-scale data center development and operations, including physical site and infrastructure readiness, location and accessibility.

While the site is now energised by a power substation located at Bukit Kayu Hitam 3km away, a 132KV Transmission Main Intake (PMU) is currently being built by Tenaga Nasional Bhd to supply for the entire Delapan SBEZ site, with an additional 275KV PMU earmarked to be built thereafter.

“The Delapan development will also provide clients with access to the Thai and Malaysian markets with fibre connectivity to both East and West Asian clients,” said AREA Real Estate Advisory chairman Datuk Stewart LaBrooy, adding that the site has the access to both the Satun-Songkhla Cable Landing Stations (CLS) in southern Thailand and the northern CLS in Penang.

To further cater to data centres, an internet exchange (IX) is due to be operational in the first quarter of 2025 (1Q2025) and the site has more than 60 million litres of water supply per day.

The statement also stated that the combination of 12 CLS, numerous telco points of presence (POPs) and an upcoming IX allows good network availability, network diversity and network density with a low network latency.

“The fibre and network connectivity at the ADCC has competitive advantage as a regional interconnect point from West (India, Middle East, and Europe), East (Hong Kong, Japan, and Taiwan) as well as North (SE Asia and China) to South (Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia),” it stated.

The report also concluded that ADCC is a safe distance away from the nearest airport and railway station, while still well connected to the air, road and rail transportation hubs via existing multiple road networks.

It added that the site’s key infrastructure readiness combined with customised government incentives such as tax exemptions, access to green energy and land that is flood-free and freehold make ADCC ideal for data centre operators to set up their businesses and operations.

“The ADCC will offer a well-planned and green-certified industrial park as a viable alternative for data centre operators to locate their operations in Malaysia. Future plans for Delapan SBEZ will also include the commissioning of a solar farm which will sell its generated green energy to our clients, enabling them to comply with their net zero carbon targets,” said LaBrooy.

Earlier this year, AREA Real Estate Advisory signed a heads of agreement with Northern Gateway Sdn Bhd, the master developer of the Delapan SBEZ, to acquire and develop a 156-acre freehold industrial zone parcelled within the Delapan SBEZ exclusively for data centers.