Phoenix pricing snapshot
These are preliminary monthly planning bands, not provider quotes. Phoenix is the one emerging market on this site with a published asking-rate band behind it, so the wholesale rows are anchored rather than extrapolated.
| Requirement | Planning range | Budget assumption |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2U | $110 to $240/mo | Basic power and internet allocation |
| Quarter or half cabinet | $750 to $1,400/mo | Shared cabinet environment |
| Standard full cabinet | $1,050 to $2,000/mo | Typical 3 to 5 kW commit |
| 10 to 20 kW high-density cabinet | $1,750 to $4,400/mo | Cooling method must be validated |
| Private cage | $4,100 to $16,500/mo | Four-rack starting profile; density drives spread |
| 250 kW | $170 to $210/kW-mo | The published 250 to 500 kW asking band |
| 500 kW | $155 to $195/kW-mo | Assumes scale and multiyear term |
| 1 MW | $140 to $175/kW-mo | Contiguous capacity and ramp required |
Method: the published Phoenix 250 to 500 kW asking-rate band, with larger blocks stepped down on standard scale assumptions and cabinet rows built from 2026 cabinet benchmarks. Taxes, cross-connects, bandwidth and one-time charges are excluded. One conflict is disclosed rather than resolved: Phoenix has been published as both a $170 to $210 band and a $190 average in different periods. We cite the band. Full sourcing on the pricing benchmarks page.
Phoenix asking rents sit only about 10% below Northern Virginia, which is not a dramatic gap. The gap that matters is power at roughly 40% cheaper per kWh and an interconnect queue in months rather than years. If you compare Phoenix on rent alone you will conclude it is a modest saving, and you will have measured the wrong thing.
Current Phoenix availability snapshot
Mesa is building fast and committing capacity well ahead of delivery. We verify the capacity block, utility or construction dependency and service-ready date before presenting an option as available.
| Option | Footprint | Usable power | Cooling support | Estimated delivery | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymized cabinet search | 1 to 4 cabinets | 5 to 80 kW | Air or containment; liquid by review | Target 30 to 90 days | Not yet verified |
| Anonymized cage search | 4 to 20 cabinets | 20 to 250 kW | Density-specific engineering review | Target 60 to 150 days | Not yet verified |
| Anonymized suite search | 250 kW to 1 MW | Contracted usable kW to be defined | Air, RDHx or liquid-ready by facility | Target 4 to 18 months | Not yet verified |
What the all-in Phoenix cost includes
Cabinet and power
Normalize allocated power, usable IT load, metering and overage language. Cheap Arizona power only helps you if the contract passes it through rather than charging a flat allocation.
Cooling and water
Validate the cooling design at your density and ask how water usage is charged. In this climate that line item is real and it varies by operator.
Network and cloud access
Add cross-connects, carrier ports, cloud on-ramps and transit. Phoenix has less carrier depth than Ashburn, so network cost deserves closer modeling here.
Install and escalators
Include cages, cabinets, cabling, turn-up, deposits, annual increases and utility pass-through mechanics.
Nearby and strategic alternatives
Tucson can suit Arizona continuity strategies at smaller scale. Las Vegas and Reno are the usual western comparisons when seismic and tax profiles matter. For a direct trade-off on power economics with more carrier depth, price Dallas-Fort Worth beside this. If interconnection is the actual requirement, Ashburn is the honest comparison and the premium is the question.
The market fundamentals behind a Phoenix quote
Phoenix is priced as a secondary market on rent and as a first-tier market on power. Understanding which of those two your quote is really reflecting is most of the negotiation.
| Measure | Figure | What it means for your quote |
|---|---|---|
| Asking rent, 250 to 500 kW | $170 to $210/kW-mo | Roughly 10% below Northern Virginia, roughly flat year over year |
| Industrial power | $0.058 to $0.078/kWh | Around 40% cheaper than Northern Virginia per kWh |
| Land near substations and fiber | $200K to $500K/acre | Against $3.5M to $4.0M in Northern Virginia, which keeps expansion viable |
| Interconnect outlook | 8 to 14 months | Against four to six years in Northern Virginia |
| Rate direction | Roughly flat | Against 14.7% growth in Chicago over a comparable period |
Every figure in this table is a published market value carried and attributed on our pricing benchmarks page. Land and power vary by parcel and by substation, and a quote reflects a specific facility rather than a metro average.
Power and land are the whole argument
The reason large requirements keep landing in Mesa is arithmetic. On a 1 MW deployment running continuously, the difference between $0.062 and $0.11 per kWh is a seven-figure annual number before anything else in the contract is considered. That is larger than the entire rent differential between Phoenix and Ashburn.
A flat per-kW rate with power included hands the operator the benefit of cheap Arizona electricity. A rate plus metered pass-through hands it to you. In a market where power is the advantage, this single structural question can be worth more than the headline rate, and it is the one most buyers forget to ask.
The land position matters for a different reason. Cheap acreage near substations and fiber is why Mesa campuses keep filing expansion phases, which is why a phased requirement has somewhere to go here. Expansion rights on a Phoenix campus are worth negotiating hard because the operator can usually deliver them.
What we see being built right now
We collect Mesa and Goodyear permit and site-plan filings directly, which gives a read on delivery risk that a rate card cannot.
| Signal | Figure | Why it matters to your quote |
|---|---|---|
| Filings tracked | 98 | Maricopa County, deduplicated, through 31 July 2026 |
| Tenant fit-out filings | 45 | Customers being installed in named buildings, the strongest signal in the set |
| Filed 2024 and 2025 | 42 | Sustained build, which usually means the operator can hold a date |
| Site plan acreage filed in 2025 | Over 550 acres | Room for phases, which is leverage on expansion rights |
| Largest capacity figure seen | 308 MW | Generator nameplate, not contractible IT load. Do not accept it as one |
Collected from the City of Mesa permit dataset and Mesa Accela planning records, current to 3 August 2026. A permit proves construction. It never proves that space is available to lease. See what the permit record shows across every market we collect.
Generator nameplate is what the backup plant carries. Master plan capacity is what the site could eventually hold. Contractible IT load is what you can sign for. Providers are not always careful about which one is in the proposal, and the gap can be a factor of two. Make the quote state which one it means.
Where in the metro you actually land
Southeast Mesa
Elliot, Ellsworth, Pecos and Hawes Roads. Where almost all current construction sits, and where the large power blocks are. Campus product, priced per kW.
Central Phoenix
The established carrier and interconnection presence. Where cabinet and cage requirements with real network needs should start, at a premium to Mesa.
Goodyear and the west valley
The second development corridor. Smaller in our filing record than Mesa, and worth testing when Mesa says no rather than assuming it is equivalent.
Chandler and Tempe
Enterprise-oriented facilities closer to corporate staff. Usually the right answer for a first cabinet deployment rather than a megawatt block.
What actually moves your Phoenix number
| Variable | Direction | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Power billing structure | The largest single lever in this market | Is power included at a flat rate or metered and passed through? |
| Committed power | Larger commitments price lower per kW | What does the next tier up cost, and when must I take it? |
| Submarket | Central Phoenix carries a network premium over Mesa | Am I paying for carrier density or for megawatts? |
| Water and cooling design | Real and operator-specific in this climate | How is water charged, and what is the design PUE by season? |
| Rack density | Above roughly 20 kW per rack, cooling drives cost | Is the density supported today, and at what premium? |
| Expansion rights | Cheaper to secure here than in constrained markets | What is the priced option on the next phase, and for how long? |
Convert both to cost per usable kW including power, then run the power line at your actual load rather than the contracted allocation. In a market whose entire advantage is electricity cost, a quote that hides power inside a flat rate is a different product from one that meters it, and the headline rates will look nearly identical.
Get a verified Phoenix shortlist with capacity, normalized pricing and delivery dates.
Send the initial and future power profile, rack density, network needs and required date. We will test actual fit before comparing economics.