QTS Bessemer Data Center Campus (Project Marvel)

Name: QTS Bessemer Data Center Campus (Project Marvel)
Address: US

Site preparation

United States · 1 project · Last reported 2026-10-20

Summary

QTS's Bessemer, Alabama page, last modified on 20 October 2026, reports that QTS and its partners have started to mobilize equipment onsite, begin clearing and earthwork operations, and start conducting pre-blast surveys for the data center facility QTS is developing in Bessemer. A capture of the same page on 16 October 2026 still said only that equipment 'will begin mobilizing', so the achieved-work wording dates from 16 to 20 October and is observed as of the 20 October modification. This supports site preparation for the campus as a whole; blasting is still to come, and no foundations, building shell, completion or operation is established. evidence

QTS Realty Trust, LLC (QTS Data Centers) · published 2026-10-20

Location

The interactive map needs JavaScript. Display anchor: 33.35580, -87.04392 (Point locator, WGS 84).

View location: OpenStreetMap · Google Maps · Bing aerial · Copernicus Browser

Campus reference; individual project footprints are not mapped.

Projects (1)

QTS Bessemer data center campus (Project Marvel) - site preparation

Site preparation last observed as of 2026-10-20 · Authoritative status update

Earlier capture of the same QTS page, made by the 16 October 2026 United States research lane. Its Construction Update was future-tense only: equipment will begin mobilizing onsite as QTS prepares for site work, with priorities including erosion and stormwater controls, protection of creeks and wetlands, and managed tree clearing. It supported no achieved work and is used here only to bound the date of the achieved-work statement in the 20 October version. evidence

QTS Realty Trust, LLC (QTS Data Centers) · published 2026-10-02

The city announces an update to the planning framework of 'the proposed Project Marvel Data Center' after residents' concerns about proximity to homes and the planned Northern Beltline: additional land adjacent to the currently zoned parcel has been identified, and an affiliate of the data center developer has agreed to acquire it to create larger buffers; revised campus plans would go to the Planning and Zoning Commission. Identity context only. evidence

Mayor and City Council of Bessemer, Alabama · published 2026-01-20

Three-page scanned ordinance. AL Bessemer Land, LLC, through an agent for the owner, applied to rezone the described property from A-1 vacant agricultural to I-1 Light Industrial 'for the entire property for construction and operation of a multi-phased data center'; the Planning and Zoning Commission reported in favour, and the council adopted the ordinance on 21 April 2026 after a public hearing that day; the mayor approved it the same day. Section 1 lists the addresses 5515 Freeman Ave, 5400 Polara Lane and 6380, 6042 and 6030 Old Lawsontown Road, Bessemer AL 35022; tax parcels 'part of' 3700270000001000, 3700263000001000, 3700262000001000, 3700261000001000 and 3700264000002000; and a legal description in Sections 26 and 27, Township 19 South, Range 5 West. The probate stamp records filing on 28 April 2026 as instrument 2026036834. The names of the agent and officials are not copied. evidence

City Council of the City of Bessemer, Alabama (recorded by the Jefferson County Judge of Probate) · published 2026-04-28

An envelope query returns the city's zoning polygons in WGS84. A contiguous cluster of I-1 Light Industrial polygons of 1,555 geodesic acres covers 90.35% of the five Ordinance No. 3698 parcels and 99.2% of the adjoining 676-acre Rock Mountain Lake Road tract, and contains the centre of QTS's Bessemer project-location map. The surrounding land is zoned A-1, R-1, I-3 and I-3S, among others. Used as identity evidence that the ordinance land and the Rock Mountain Lake Road tract form one rezoned campus. evidence

City of Bessemer, Alabama GIS · publication date not stated

Attribute query for the ordinance parcel numbers and for company owners named AL Bessemer Land or Valley Creek Land. No parcel is owned by AL Bessemer Land, LLC in this snapshot. Valley Creek Land & Timber LLC holds the five ordinance parcels and the Rock Mountain Lake Road tract south of them: 5761 (parcel 3700352000001000, 155.84 geodesic acres, containing QTS's project-location map centre), 5851, 5921, 5945, 5951 and 5959 Rock Mountain Lake Rd, together 676.0 acres and 99.2% zoned I-1, adjoining the ordinance land; this is consistent with the 'currently zoned parcel' named in the city's 20 January 2026 release. Identity evidence only. evidence

City of Bessemer, Alabama GIS, from Jefferson County Commission parcel data · publication date not stated

Companies

Operator: QTS Data Centers (intended) evidence

Source and location review

Status source

QTS Data Centers: Bessemer, Alabama data center page (Construction Update; page dateModified 2026-10-20) evidence row
QTS Realty Trust, LLC (QTS Data Centers) · published 2026-10-20 · Company disclosure

Locator

Campus locator · Official source · official_tax_parcel_union_centroid evidence

Source checks

Not reviewed against imagery not_reviewed
No imagery review is recorded for this project. Its status rests only on the dated authoritative source. · no independent imagery verification

Status age at review: 7 days before the data update on 2026-10-27

Location details

Coordinates: 33.35580, -87.04392
Geometry licence: public-record-source-terms
Use scope: Campus locator
Scope class: official_tax_parcel_union_centroid
Authority: Official source
Source entity: Campus
Method: official_parcel_service_centroid_of_union_of_tax_parcels_named_in_rezoning_ordinance
Derivation: direct_geometry
Precision scope: Centroid of the union of the five Jefferson County tax parcels (960.96 geodesic acres in two parts, about 3.2 by 1.6 km) that City of Bessemer Ordinance No. 3698 rezoned, in part, to I-1 for a multi-phased data center. It locates the northern part of the Project Marvel campus (a contiguous 1,555-acre I-1 cluster in the city zoning layer), not a building, the first-phase work area or a surveyed boundary; the 676-acre Rock Mountain Lake Road tract of the campus lies immediately south.
Horizontal uncertainty: Not reported
Neither the county nor the city publishes positional accuracy for the parcel layer. The point represents about 961 acres spanning 3.2 by 1.6 km, up to 2.0 km from the centroid, within a 1,555-acre I-1 campus cluster, and the position of the buildings and of the reported site work is not published.
Geometry evidence: 29a03562

A locator places the site on the map. It is not a building footprint, a construction extent or a surveyed boundary unless the use scope is an official boundary, and even then it is a parcel or permit boundary.

Evidence

Sources are linked, not redistributed; each keeps its own terms. An archived copy is a lookup for the Wayback Machine capture nearest the retrieval date and may be unavailable or differ from what was reviewed. Each hash states what it covers; imported factual records are not publisher-page captures.

Evidence for QTS Bessemer Data Center Campus (Project Marvel)
Title	Publisher	Roles	Published	Retrieved	Licence	Attribution	Content hash (SHA-256)
City of Bessemer GIS (Bessemer Interactive Maps), Bessemer_Zoning FeatureServer layer 1 Parcels: the five Jefferson County tax parcels listed in Ordinance No. 3698 Archived copy	City of Bessemer, Alabama GIS, from Jefferson County Commission parcel data Government record	Geometry	not stated	2026-10-22	public-record-source-terms	City of Bessemer, Alabama (bessemergis ArcGIS organisation); Jefferson County Commission, Information Technology Services - GIS Division	`877b0f353cbe9fddd86f2de59f9d95d24be1164c118964ac2bf00fc8ab05e302` Retained source material; see source provenance
City of Bessemer GIS, Bessemer_Zoning FeatureServer layer 0 Zoning: zoning polygons around Rock Mountain Lake Road and Old Lawsontown Road Archived copy	City of Bessemer, Alabama GIS Government record	Site and project identity	not stated	2026-10-22	public-record-source-terms	City of Bessemer, Alabama (bessemergis ArcGIS organisation)	`60a2e750243b73f9503c73777464afb4a56f907f826929317c99814b949a35d8` Retained source material; see source provenance
City of Bessemer GIS, Bessemer_Zoning layer 1 Parcels: parcels of the Ordinance No. 3698 land and company-owned parcels of the adjoining Rock Mountain Lake Road tract Archived copy	City of Bessemer, Alabama GIS, from Jefferson County Commission parcel data Government record	Site and project identity	not stated	2026-10-22	public-record-source-terms	City of Bessemer, Alabama (bessemergis ArcGIS organisation); Jefferson County Commission, Information Technology Services - GIS Division	`13b378e06f6fea4f5d1d234e07fc457fe14bd4f6100dcf0a06dff66a8992b27f` Retained source material; see source provenance
City of Bessemer, Alabama: Ordinance No. 3698 rezoning property of AL Bessemer Land, LLC from A-1 to I-1 for a multi-phased data center, adopted 21 April 2026 (recorded copy; Internet Archive copy of the city PDF) Archived copy	City Council of the City of Bessemer, Alabama (recorded by the Jefferson County Judge of Probate) Government record	Site and project identity	2026-04-28	2026-10-22	public-record-source-terms	City of Bessemer, Alabama; Jefferson County, Alabama Judge of Probate; archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine	`a991b2f111d1f2d5ae97d40158e6d1a6b1353b0b079132d82ad5ab7c609639cd` Retained source material; see source provenance
City of Bessemer, Alabama: press release "City of Bessemer Announces Updated Development Plans for Proposed Data Center Project", 20 January 2026 (Internet Archive copy) Archived copy	Mayor and City Council of Bessemer, Alabama Government record	Site and project identity	2026-01-20	2026-10-22	public-record-source-terms	City of Bessemer, Alabama; archived by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine	`643e31483cfc9fea119ff4f41dd5112b9187aeac4b3bb8bfcb1443028a03bfc8` Retained source material; see source provenance
QTS Data Centers: Bessemer, Alabama data center page (Construction Update; page dateModified 2026-10-20) Archived copy	QTS Realty Trust, LLC (QTS Data Centers) Company disclosure	Physical status, Operator claim	2026-10-20	2026-10-22	all-rights-reserved	QTS Realty Trust, LLC	`5a7a652ef04fcfea887eff5e4faaf34bc52437263ef15cbde5c14e6263529bcf` Retained source material; see source provenance
QTS Data Centers: Bessemer, Alabama data center page as captured on 16 October 2026 (dateModified 2026-10-02; earlier wording) Archived copy	QTS Realty Trust, LLC (QTS Data Centers) Company disclosure	Site and project identity	2026-10-02	2026-10-16	all-rights-reserved	QTS Realty Trust, LLC	`467a20cd4cea480c40da4bbca94eccceec83084f26c77e9345d08ddd5284f4ee` Retained source material; see source provenance

Cite this site

Kyars, K. (2026). QTS Bessemer Data Center Campus (Project Marvel) [site vcc-site-d48a213ebe706be3a283]. In Data Center Atlas (2026-10-27) [Data set]. https://kiankyars.github.io/datacenter-atlas/sites/vcc-site-d48a213ebe706be3a283/

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