NEXTDC's Horsley Park data centre expansion goes on exhibition

NEXTDC Limited’s proposed expansion of its data centre at 6 Johnston Crescent, Horsley Park, in Sydney’s Fairfield local government area, is listed as on exhibition as a state significant development, Urban Digest reported, with the planning portal snapshot it cited showing a current scheme date of 12 March 2026 and the project status as exhibition.

The application, SSD-108864209, covers a second phase at the site with two data centre buildings, Building EF and Building G, Urban Digest reported. NEXTDC’s earlier stage at the site, referred to in the report as the S4 Phase 1 consent, was granted in December 2025, ahead of this expansion application now before the state.

Urban Digest’s own report carries two different figures for the project’s capital investment, and two different figures for its combined gross floor area, and in both cases the pair does not match. Its article text puts the capital investment at $1.79 billion, while the portal snapshot it published in the same report lists capital investment at $3.50 billion. On floor area, the article text gives a combined gross floor area of approximately 35,992 square metres across the two buildings, while the portal snapshot breaks the figure down differently, at 37,425 square metres split between a 34,285 square metre data hall and 3,140 square metres of ancillary office space. Urban Digest’s report does not reconcile either pair of figures, and this report does not either: both the capital investment and the floor area remain disputed between the outlet’s article text and the portal data it quotes, and neither number is printed here as settled fact.

Why it matters

A disputed capital investment figure matters for a project this size regardless of which number eventually holds. Western Sydney already carries heavy data centre investment, including the Microsoft facility approved at Huntingwood. Readers tracking capital flowing into western Sydney’s data centre corridor should treat both numbers as provisional until NEXTDC or the planning portal itself settles the discrepancy, rather than repeating either one as confirmed.

The floor area discrepancy matters for a different reason: gross floor area feeds directly into car parking, landscaping and other development standards assessed under the state significant development pathway. A gap of roughly 1,400 square metres between the two reported figures is not a rounding difference, and it is not clear from Urban Digest’s report which figure the assessment itself is working from.

Fairfield City Council is not the consent authority for a state significant development of this kind. The determination rests with the state, through the planning portal’s assessment pathway, following exhibition.

The numbers

Two data centre buildings, Building EF and Building G, make up the expansion as reported, with the portal snapshot splitting floor space between data hall and ancillary office areas. NEXTDC’s earlier stage at the site, the S4 Phase 1 consent, was granted in December 2025. The portal snapshot Urban Digest cited lists a current scheme date of 12 March 2026 and a project status of exhibition, though the report does not state when the exhibition period opened or when it closes.

Capital investment is reported as $1.79 billion in Urban Digest’s article text and as $3.50 billion in the portal snapshot the same report cites, a gap of more than $1.7 billion. Combined gross floor area is reported as approximately 35,992 square metres in the article text, against 37,425 square metres, split between a 34,285 square metre data hall and 3,140 square metres of ancillary office space, in the portal snapshot.

What’s next

Urban Digest’s report does not state a submissions closing date for the exhibition, a determination timeline or a construction start date, and none is reported here. Whether the final figures settle toward the lower or higher end, or somewhere between, depends on what NEXTDC’s application and the state’s assessment ultimately confirm, not on either number printed so far.

For more on the data centre investment building up around western Sydney, see Microsoft’s $1.26 billion Huntingwood data centre, approved in the same western Sydney corridor.