A Developer's Guide to LandGate's Nationwide Data Center Due Diligence Data
- Craig Kaiser
- Jul 2
- 11 min read
For data center developers, site selectors, operators, and investors, one constraint sits above all others: power. A site can have ideal land, connectivity, and incentives, but if it cannot secure large, reliable power quickly and connect to the grid without prohibitive upgrades, it is not a data center site. Around that central question sit the others that decide a project: fiber and interconnection, real estate and lease economics, tax incentives, backup and resilience, and the surrounding market. Those questions are what LandGate's Data Center Due Diligence Report is built to answer.
This post walks through each section of a Data Center Due Diligence Report, explaining what data is provided and why it matters for anyone evaluating a data center site or asset. The figures cited throughout come from the attached sample report, an active 10 MW Equinix colocation facility (Equinix Dallas DA7) on a 19.73 acre parcel in Collin County, Texas, screened against the ERCOT grid and an ERCOT 2031 summer peak case study. Because a data center is a large electrical load rather than a generator, several sections that look familiar from a solar or storage report read in reverse here: cheap power at the node is a benefit, not a revenue risk, and the grid question is whether the network can deliver power to the site rather than accept power from it.
Instantly Access Nationwide Data Center Data via LLM
LandGate's data center due diligence data is available nationwide and fully optimized for AI. Using our Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server, you can pipe this granular power, connectivity, real estate, and market data directly into your LLMs (like ChatGPT, Claude, or internal tools) to automatically screen candidate sites, programmatically rank locations by available offtake capacity or power cost, and stress test connectivity and incentives across thousands of parcels in seconds.
Starting Point: The Data Center Profile
The report opens by establishing exactly what the facility is and how large it is. It lists the core physical attributes: status, white space, gross power, rack count, power density per rack, building area, and parcel acreage. For the sample, Equinix Dallas DA7 is an active facility with 37,897 square feet of white space, 10 MW of gross power across 900 racks (a density of roughly 0.01 MW per rack), a building area of about 169,141 square feet, and a 19.73 acre parcel.
These figures matter because they define the scale and intensity of the asset in the terms the industry actually uses. White space and rack count size the sellable capacity, gross power and power density describe how much load the facility draws and how intensively it packs it, and the building-to-parcel ratio signals how much room remains for expansion. Whether the reader is benchmarking an operating asset for acquisition or sizing a comparable new build, these are the numbers every later section is measured against.
Real Estate Information
The report then covers the parcel itself: the county, the legal owner, the colocation lease economics, and the transaction history. In the sample, the parcel sits in Collin County, Texas, is owned by an entity operating as T5 Data Center, and last transacted in February 2019. The report also lists an average colocation lease rate of $1.75 per square foot per month, or $184.46 per kilowatt per month.
The lease economics are the most portable output here. Data center space is priced and traded on a dollars-per-kilowatt basis, so the $/kW/mo figure is the metric that lets a developer or investor benchmark this asset's revenue potential against the broader market and against their own pro forma. Pairing that with ownership and transaction history gives an immediate read on who controls the site and what it last changed hands for, which is the starting point for any acquisition or leasing conversation.
Electrical Infrastructure
Because power is the binding constraint, the report devotes its central sections to the grid. It identifies the ISO or RTO, the nearest transmission and distribution lines, and, most importantly, ranks the closest substations by the capacity available to serve the site. For the sample in ERCOT, the site sits 0.25 miles from an Oncor transmission line rated at 1,147 MW, and its power source is a grid connection.
The offtake capacity table is the heart of the power analysis. It lists nearby substations with their distance, voltage, and available transfer capability: in the sample, Tennyson Road at 0.38 miles offers 1,127.63 MW at 345 kV, Communication Parkway at 1.22 miles offers 677.31 MW at 138 kV, and Plano Parker Road at 2.54 miles offers 517.22 MW. For a data center, this is the single most important screen. A high-voltage substation with more than a gigawatt of available capacity less than half a mile away is exactly the kind of position that makes a site viable at scale, and pairing distance with available megawatts tells a developer at a glance whether the grid can actually deliver the power the facility will demand.
Offtake Study
Where the electrical infrastructure section surveys the options, the offtake study drills into the interconnection at the specific bus the project would use. It reports the bus, its voltage and grid area, the limiting elements that would constrain delivery, and the network upgrade cost required to serve the load. For the sample, the study runs against the PL_TENNY_5 bus (345 kV, in ERCOT North), returns zero limiting elements, and estimates a network upgrade cost of $0.
That combination, no limiting elements and no required upgrades, is the strongest possible interconnection result, and it is exactly what a data center developer hopes to see. Network upgrade cost and interconnection timeline are among the largest sources of risk and delay in bringing a large load online, so a bus that can serve the facility without triggering upgrades removes a major obstacle. By naming the bus and showing the empty limiting-element table, the report gives a defensible basis for that conclusion rather than an unexplained figure.
Interconnection Queues
The report then places the site in the context of everything else competing for local grid capacity. It separates the load interconnection queue from the regional generation queue, listing each project's capacity, point of interconnection, type, and status. In the sample, the load queue is populated by nearby manufacturing headquarters, while the regional generation queue is dense with battery storage projects, including several in the 150 to 260 MW range.
This queue context cuts two ways for a data center. The load queue shows what other large consumers are seeking power in the same area, which signals competition for the same grid capacity and can affect how quickly and at what cost the site can be served. The heavy battery storage buildout nearby, by contrast, is generally supportive, since storage firms up local reliability and can dampen the price spikes that drive a data center's power cost. Reading the queue tells a developer both how contested the local grid is and how its resource mix is evolving around the site.
Energy Prices: Node vs Hub
For a data center, energy price is a cost rather than a revenue, and the report presents it at the project's specific pricing node. It compares prices at the ERCOT hub against prices at the node, expresses the difference as a basis, and ranks the location against ISO and state percentiles across trailing and forward periods, with a forward curve extending the comparison. In the sample, the node is PL_TENNY_5.
Here the interpretation flips relative to a generation asset. In the sample, the node prices modestly below the hub in most periods (a negative delta of roughly $6 to $9/MWh), which for a load is favorable, since the facility buys power at the node. The mid-range ISO and state percentiles suggest a location that is neither unusually cheap nor unusually expensive within the market. The forward curve then shows the seasonal shape a Texas buyer should expect, with pronounced summer peaks characteristic of ERCOT. Together these let a developer estimate the cost of power at the site with a realistic sense of both its typical level and its volatility.
State Incentives
The report summarizes the state tax incentives and programs that shape data center economics in the jurisdiction. For the sample in Texas, it confirms the site qualifies for tax exemption and highlights the research and development tax credit, the sales tax exemption on data center equipment (covering computers, software, cooling systems, and other critical hardware), and state programs including the Texas Enterprise Fund, the Texas Capital Fund, and the Skills Development Fund.
These incentives matter because they can materially change a project's capital and operating economics. The Texas sales tax exemption on data center equipment is especially significant given how equipment-intensive these facilities are, and it is one of the reasons the state has become a leading data center market. Surfacing the applicable exemptions and programs lets a developer factor real incentive value into the site decision rather than treating it as an afterthought.
Connectivity: Fiber and Internet Exchange
For a data center, network connectivity ranks just behind power, and the report profiles both the fiber routes and the internet exchange infrastructure near the site. In the sample, regional and long-haul fiber run within 0.04 miles of the facility, and an Equinix internet exchange point sits just 0.02 miles away.
Connectivity of this quality is a major asset. Proximity to diverse fiber (both metro and long-haul) supports the redundant, high-bandwidth links data centers require, and being effectively adjacent to an internet exchange point delivers low-latency interconnection to networks and peers, which is a primary selling point for colocation and a genuine differentiator between sites. By mapping fiber routes and exchange proximity, the report confirms that the location can meet the connectivity demands that power alone does not address.
Gas Access and Redundancy
The report also assesses fuel access and the resilience infrastructure that supports backup and behind-the-meter options. It profiles the nearest gas offtake point and natural gas pipeline, along with a set of redundancy sources such as compression stations, power stations, and storage. In the sample, the nearest usable gas offtake (Gulf South Pipeline) is a distant 52.85 miles, the nearest natural gas pipeline (Atmos, 3.69 miles) is marked abandoned, while a compression station sits 1.25 miles away and a power station about 13 miles out.
This section matters because it defines the site's options for backup power and fuel resilience, which are increasingly central as data centers explore on-site generation to manage grid constraints. The sample illustrates the value of the detail: the closest pipeline being abandoned and the nearest active gas offtake being more than 50 miles away would be a real limitation for any gas-fired backup or behind-the-meter strategy, even though grid power at the site is strong. Laying out gas access and redundancy sources lets a developer judge how self-sufficient the site can be if the grid alone is not enough.
Surrounding Load and Renewables
The report profiles the demand and clean-energy resources around the site: the nearest large load projects, solar farm, and wind farm, each with distance, operator, and capacity. In the sample, the nearest loads are two active manufacturing facilities within a mile, the nearest solar farm (Toyota HQ Plan, operated by MN8 Energy) is 2.09 miles away at 7.7 MW with an estimated PPA price near $54/MWh, and the nearest wind farm is a 175.3 MW project about 45 miles out.
This context speaks to both competition and sourcing. Nearby large loads share the local grid and signal an established industrial corridor, while nearby renewables give a real reference for clean-energy procurement, which is increasingly a requirement for hyperscale and enterprise tenants with sustainability commitments. The estimated solar PPA price in particular gives a grounded starting point for what a renewable sourcing arrangement might cost. Mapping what surrounds the site helps a developer weigh both the demand pressure on the grid and the options for greening the facility's power.
Data Center Market Context
The report closes the market picture by profiling the nearest data center and the broader state landscape. For the sample, the nearest facility is Stack DFW01A just 0.04 miles away, an active 21 MW colocation site, and the state statistics show Texas hosting 892 data centers across 82 counties, with the Dallas area dominating the count. A short list of adjacent facilities operated by T5, Stream, and Stack sits effectively on top of the site.
This competitive context matters because data centers cluster for good reasons. A dense concentration of nearby facilities signals a mature market with proven power, fiber, and talent, which lowers execution risk for a new project even as it raises competition for resources and tenants. The state-level statistics put the local cluster in perspective, showing how deep the market is and where it concentrates. For a site selector, this is the difference between pioneering an unproven location and building into an established hub.
Environmental Aspects
Finally, the report addresses environmental and permitting risk. It presents a regional endangered-species diversity heatmap and details the federally protected species that may be present near the site, organized by class, with each species' status and a note on the development risk it poses. For the sample, the federally protected species risk is rated high, with listed birds including the threatened piping plover and rufa red knot and the endangered whooping crane.
This early read matters because protected species are a common source of permitting delay and added mitigation cost, even for a project on already-developed industrial land. The report is careful to note that presence depends on habitat and that a qualified biologist's survey remains the definitive step, but flagging the species and the risk level up front lets a developer scope environmental diligence realistically rather than discovering it during permitting.
What This Report Tells You and What It Doesn't
A LandGate Data Center Due Diligence Report is a siting and screening tool. It combines facility, power, interconnection, connectivity, real estate, incentive, and market data into a single picture that is directionally accurate and immediately useful for deciding whether a site or asset deserves deeper investment. It is not a substitute for the formal utility load study, title report, environmental site assessment, detailed financial model, and confirmed power and connectivity agreements that a project requires to move forward.
Report Section | Decision It Supports |
Data Center Profile | Benchmarking facility scale, power, and density |
Real Estate Information | Confirming ownership, transaction history, and lease benchmarks |
Electrical Infrastructure | Assessing power availability and grid proximity |
Offtake Study | Estimating interconnection feasibility and upgrade cost to serve load |
Interconnection Queues | Gauging grid competition and local storage buildout |
Energy Prices | Estimating the cost of power at the site's node |
State Incentives | Identifying tax exemptions and program support |
Connectivity | Confirming fiber and internet exchange access |
Gas Access and Redundancy | Assessing backup fuel and resilience options |
Surrounding Load and Renewables | Understanding demand competition and clean-energy sourcing |
Data Center Market Context | Reading the competitive and market landscape |
Environmental Aspects | Flagging species and permitting risk early |
What comes after a strong screening is a formal utility load study, environmental survey, and negotiated power and connectivity terms. The report's value is in giving developers, site selectors, and investors enough information to decide quickly whether a site's power, connectivity, and market position justify that deeper commitment of time and capital, and to enter those later stages with a clear-eyed view of where the risks lie.
Accessing Data Center Due Diligence Data
The gap between a site that looks like a data center location and one that actually becomes a project is almost always a matter of power, connectivity, and the interconnection cost to serve a large load, factors that interact in ways that are difficult to judge by intuition. LandGate's Data Center Due Diligence Report brings that full picture forward to the screening stage, giving developers and investors a data-driven read on power availability, interconnection, connectivity, incentives, and market context before significant capital is committed. For anyone evaluating multiple candidate sites, it turns data center viability into a screening criterion rather than a late-stage discovery.
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LandGate Data Center Due Diligence Reports are based on site parameters, grid and market data, modeled interconnection results, and publicly available real estate, incentive, and environmental information. Results are directional estimates intended for screening and siting purposes and should not be used as a substitute for a project's formal utility load study, title report, environmental site assessment, detailed financial model, or confirmed power and connectivity agreements. Actual power availability, interconnection cost, energy pricing, connectivity, permitting requirements, and project value may differ from report findings.
