The Infomart building was designed after The Crystal Palace, which was built in 19th century London to host the first in a series of world fairs. Its glass, steel and sheer size (7 floors, 1.6 million square feet) make it one of the largest and most distinct buildings in the Dallas area. And inside, it’s got some trademark Equinix color and flair.
The $85 million Infomart was opened as part of Trammell Crow’s Dallas Market Center in 1985 on the site of the P.C. Cobb Stadium. It was built to serve the needs of information technology companies and provide an environment that would stimulate growth. The building currently serves as a technology office and data center, home to more than 110 technology and telecommunications companies. The property and management team were recently merged with another Data Center operator, Fortune Data Centers, to create a national operator.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Infomart hosted combined monthly meetings of many Dallas-area computer user groups, including those for the Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Atari ST, and Amiga. The center became home to four Equinix Dallas International Business Exchange (IBX) data facilities (Equinix DA1, DA2, DA3 and DA6), offering direct peering access to more than 530 Equinix customers, including over 180 enterprises, over 50 financial services and over 160 cloud and IT services. Peering networks include Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Oracle, Voxility, Lumen Technologies (formerly known as Level3 Communications) and Verizon. In June 2020, Equinix announced the expansion of the Infomart Data Center site with the construction of a new $142 million International Business Exchange (IBX) data center and the establishment of a 5G and Edge Proof of Concept Center (POCC).