Hub 03 Building and Delivery

The three procurement splits that define every data center build: owner buys and contractor installs (OFCI — all major electrical and mechanical packages), contractor buys and installs (CFCI — bulk materials, civil/structural), owner buys and installs (OFOI — IT hardware and tenant systems). What each split moves: vendor selection, pricing leverage, cash timing, and who holds the delivery risk. The mechanics here; the risk allocation comes in 07.10. Builds on: 01.20 — the packages being split.

Power-first site selection: substation proximity, interconnection feasibility, transmission access, zoning and permitting speed, fiber routes, water availability, natural-hazard screening — and why land is now valued on deliverable megawatts rather than acres. The site decision is the first and largest procurement decision, locking in power timelines, construction costs, and equipment logistics for a decade. Builds on: 01.50 (interconnection feasibility), 02.40 (water as a siting constraint).

The approvals between site selection and construction: zoning and entitlements, environmental review, utility permits, and the authority-having-jurisdiction (AHJ) process. Why permitting timelines (6-18 months) are a schedule risk procurement must plan around — equipment ordered against a permit-dependent notice-to-proceed date. How to read a jurisdiction before the site decision locks. Builds on: 03.20 — the selected site being permitted.

How data centers actually get built — design-bid-build vs design-build vs construction-manager-at-risk with a Guaranteed Maximum Price vs EPC turnkey — and where procurement risk sits in each (owner-held LLE packages vs contractor-held, contingency ownership, savings sharing). Current practice: GMP with early long-lead procurement for standard builds, framework agreements across campuses for hyperscalers, open-book EPC for the largest AI projects. Builds on: 03.10 (owner-held vs contractor-held packages), 03.20 (the site now decided).

Realistic phase durations — site selection 3-6 months, design 6-12, permitting 6-18, construction 12-24, commissioning 3-6 — and how to read a data center schedule: why long-lead equipment breaks more schedules than weather or labor, how phases overlap, and where float actually exists. Buying strategy, vendor capacity, the submittal cycle (specification to shop drawings to approval to PO), and delivery dates belong on the critical path from day one, not as a parallel track. Builds on: 03.40 (the delivery model sets the phase structure), 03.30 (permitting timelines), 01.40 (LLE lead times).

Factory Acceptance Testing (verify it was built right, at the vendor's plant) and Site Acceptance Testing (verify it survived shipping and installation). What gets tested, who witnesses, and why skipping FAT turns factory-fixable defects into site-expensive ones. What to write into the PO: witness rights, test protocols, and acceptance criteria are procurement deliverables, not engineering afterthoughts. Builds on: 03.50 (where testing sits in the schedule), 01.20 (what's being tested).

The five-level ladder from FAT through installation verification, startup, functional performance testing, and integrated systems testing — including failure-scenario testing (utility loss, generator transfer, UPS failure) that proves the facility as one system. A majority of major outages trace to commissioning gaps. Procurement's job isn't done at delivery: the warranty clock, the asset register, and the handover to operations are all settled here. Builds on: 03.60 (FAT/SAT are levels 1-2), 03.50 (the schedule they close out).

Key sources: datacenters.com (powered land, site strategy); King & Spalding / Real Estate Finance Journal (GMP, framework agreements, EPC); iRecruit and Cumulus Quality (L1-L5 commissioning); Broadstaff (construction phase timelines).