The server halls get the attention, but a data center runs on the smaller buildings around it: the electrical gear enclosures, the generator and fuel yards, the chiller or pump houses, the gatehouse, the loading and staging building and the maintenance shop. Each is modest next to the main hall, and each has to be right, because a failure in any one can take a hall offline. We build those support structures for data center owners and the developers who work with them in the Albuquerque metro.
The Los Lunas campus south of Albuquerque shows the pattern at scale. By July 2025 it was over 4 million square feet, with seven operating buildings and three more under development, and growth like that requires a steady string of support facilities that go up while the halls are still being commissioned. That is the kind of rolling schedule we plan for: separate, well-defined packages that proceed in parallel and hand over cleanly.
Typical support scopes include an electrical building or prefabricated gear room for switchgear and batteries, a generator yard with slabs, containment and fuel piping, a pump house or chiller plant, a security gatehouse with vehicle inspection lanes, a materials receiving and staging building, and a small maintenance shop. Some are pre-engineered metal buildings, others are masonry or precast, and the choice depends on fire rating, blast or vandal resistance and the owner's standard.
We also build the connecting infrastructure: equipment pads, conduit and duct banks, bollards, fencing and lighting. These pieces often run between the main hall and the support buildings, so we coordinate with the hall contractor on trench routes and crossing points. A clean handoff of the underground work matters, and the electrical duct bank and underground trade crews work to the same coordination drawings as the others.
Data center support buildings are judged by uptime, so redundancy shapes the design. Dual feeds, separate fire areas for A and B power paths, and clear maintenance clearances around gear all affect the building layout. Security adds more: vehicle barriers, controlled entries, camera coverage and hardened walls on exposed buildings. We build these elements into the drawing from the first sketch.
The high-desert site brings its own conditions. Dust and wind affect air intakes and filters, intense sun hits roofs and equipment pads, and water is scarce, which influences cooling choices and the sizing of the fire water supply. We coordinate with your mechanical engineer on louvers, screens and filtration, and with a fire water loop and hydrant system design that fits the site's supply.
Our trade partners handle earthwork, slabs on grade, equipment pads, underground conduit, duct banks and site concrete, which are the elements that decide whether electrical gear can be set on a precise date. A switchgear lineup that arrives before its pad is level and cured has to sit on timbers, and every week of delay in a data center project is expensive. Controlling those scopes lets us promise dates we can keep.
Building erection is also ours, whether the structure is a metal frame, a precast enclosure or a concrete block building. We coordinate with equipment suppliers on lifting plans, door sizes and access routes, since a transformer or generator arrives on a specific truck with specific dimensions. Where the owner requires a particular erector or panel supplier, we manage them as part of the package.
On these projects, the building is rarely the critical path. The path runs through utility interconnection, switchgear, generators and transformers, each of which has its own lead time and delivery slot. We map those dates first and schedule enclosure, slab and tie-in work to meet them. A building that sits ready while equipment waits is waste, and a building that is late holds up energization.
We stage work around commissioning too. Integrated systems testing needs power, cooling and controls running together, so support buildings must be complete, clean and inspected before testing starts. Our turnover packages include as-builts, test records and closeout documents organized for the owner's commissioning agent.
Building next to an energized data hall adds rules. Crews follow badge, escort and hot-work procedures, observe clearances from energized lines and lockout equipment, and avoid anything that could trip a system. We hold daily coordination meetings with the owner's operations staff, and we plan crane picks and deliveries so they do not cross critical paths.
Electrical safety is a constant concern. All electrical work is permitted under the 2020 New Mexico Electrical Code, which adopts the 2020 National Electrical Code as amended and took effect March 28, 2023, and our workers follow arc flash and lockout practices on every energized connection. Environmental controls for fuel storage, spill containment and stormwater are part of the plan from day one.
Los Lunas is not the only place with data center land. The Paseo del Volcan corridor, a roughly 30-mile planned freeway between I-40 and US 550, is intended to open thousands of acres on the west side for manufacturing, distribution, data center and warehouse facilities. And the Huning Business & Tech Park, about 716 acres northwest of I-25 and Highway 6, is marketed with all utilities available and sits next to the rail park.
A 2021 report put one campus owner's additional investment at $800 million, bringing the total to $2.2 billion for nearly 3.8 million square feet of data center space. Those numbers describe a market where owners keep adding buildings in phases, and where a builder who knows the sequence of support buildings can save weeks on each phase. Our Los Lunas planning is built for that sort of rolling expansion, with site and building packages released in step with each phase.
If you are planning the halls themselves, we also deliver data center construction, and many owners use us for both so the same team controls interfaces. For the wider category, the data center building type page lists what we build, and our data center industry practice covers owners from developers to operators.
We can take a support package alone, working beside your general contractor, or fold it into a design-build scope that includes sitework, utilities and the shells.
Share the one-line diagram, the list of support buildings and the energization date. We will map the equipment lead times, price the packages and propose a sequence that fits your campus.
Yes. We frequently work beside a hall contractor, taking the support buildings, equipment pads, yards and site features as a separate package. We coordinate through shared logistics plans, a master schedule and regular meetings so the interfaces are clear.
Often, yes. Prefabricated electrical rooms, modular enclosures and precast components can shorten the schedule. We prepare the foundations, set the units and make the connections, and we coordinate delivery windows with the supplier.
With containment, spill prevention and the code-required clearances, designed with the owner's environmental team. We build the slabs, containment walls and piping paths and coordinate the inspections.
Pads are fast relative to the equipment they support. Once we have final vendor drawings, concrete work can be done in weeks. The challenge is getting accurate drawings early enough, so we push for submittals before we start the foundation.
Yes. We install perimeter fencing, gates, vehicle barriers, lighting and conduit for cameras and access control, coordinated with your security integrator.
Tell us about the property, the building and the schedule.
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