Former Berkeley Lab building in Oakland being considered for AI data center complex
OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- A downtown Oakland office building that once housed a supercomputer operation for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory could become home to a new data center and artificial intelligence complex.
The four-story building at 415 20th St. is being considered as part of a proposed innovation hub envisioned by Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife and developer Colin Behring. The proposal remains uncertain, including the facility's future occupants and final use.
"My goal is to protect the community but also enhance the potential of economic development in my district," Fife said.
The building formerly housed Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's supercomputer site for more than 20 years.
Yashas Hariprasad, a computer science professor at Cal State East Bay, said the site already has resources that could help support a data center.
"I was reading that they already have a connection of 20 megawatts of power already connected in that building," Hariprasad said. "So that simplifies the issue that we need to bring in a new power line to the building. The power grid awarded has sufficient capacity to handle these high amounts of power; so, it makes it easier," he said.
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Behring said the proposal would repurpose the former supercomputer space for a similar type of operation, while remaining part of a larger planned development.
"Nothing has changed. In our proposal at this point is to use the same building doing what it used to do, the same way," Behring said. "While it may be big headlines to talk about data centers, this project is very much different. It's a piece of our campus."
The proposed data center would occupy 20,700 square feet, or 1.5% of the multi-building complex. Behring's proposed innovation hub includes about 1.4 million square feet of offices, retail and other commercial space.
Fife and Behring said the artificial intelligence complex would support research and operations for an innovation campus at 1900 Broadway.
Some residents expressed concerns about energy use, noise and sustainability. One Oakland resident questioned whether the facility would operate continuously.
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"Is the system going to be running 24/7? Because that's what, typically, data centers do," the resident said.
The resident said she was not opposed to the proposed data center but wanted it to benefit Oakland.
"Yeah. Work for the community. Give back to the infrastructure that allow us to be here," she said.
Fife and Behring said any future occupant and use would need to align with the broader vision for the campus.
"What's good for campus, what's good for the companies, what's good for the city," Behring said.
Officials have not identified a final tenant or announced a final decision on the building's future use.
