North Texas Data Centers Boom, Mechanical Trades Constrain

North Texas has become the busiest data center construction market in the country, and almost none of the capacity being built is still available. In its North America Data Center Trends report for the first half of 2026, CBRE counted more than 765 megawatts under construction in Dallas-Fort Worth, with 95% of it already preleased, and another 3.7 gigawatts of greenfield development planned but not yet started. Under-construction inventory in the metro jumped 81% year over year.

Headlines focus on power and land. But behind every megawatt that reaches a tenant on schedule is a less visible constraint: the mechanical, plumbing and controls contractors who have to install cooling systems that did not exist a few years ago, with a workforce the whole construction industry is struggling to find.

A market where every megawatt is spoken for

The demand picture is unusually clear. Across CBRE's primary North American markets, supply rose 33.7% year over year to a record 10,903 megawatts in the first half of 2026, vacancy fell to 1.4%, and 80.4% of capacity under construction was already preleased. CBRE estimates less than 1,500 megawatts of everything under construction remains available, roughly six months of demand at the current absorption rate. In that environment, schedule is everything: a data hall that delivers late is a tenant that cannot move in.

The cooling inside is changing faster than the buildings

The mechanical scope of a data center is also becoming more complex. As AI chips push past the limits of air cooling, operators are specifying direct-to-chip liquid cooling, which brings coolant distribution units, manifolds, leak detection and precise piping tolerances into the data hall. The industry's shift toward liquid cooling, covered in MarketScale's recent report on 4,000-watt AI chips, means the mechanical contractor is no longer installing a commodity system. It is installing the infrastructure that determines whether the racks can run at all.

And the workforce is the bottleneck

Associated Builders and Contractors estimates the U.S. construction industry must attract 349,000 net new workers in 2026 to balance labor supply and demand, rising to 456,000 in 2027 as spending growth resumes. ABC chief economist Anirban Basu says most of this year's demand comes from retirements rather than new activity, and the trade group notes that demand for electricians with precision skills has risen alongside the rapid build-out of AI data centers. For mechanical trades, the same pressure applies: the projects are getting harder at the same time the experienced workforce is getting smaller.

The numbers behind the squeeze

• 765+ MW: data center capacity under construction in Dallas-Fort Worth, 95% preleased (CBRE, H1 2026)
• 3.7 GW: additional greenfield data center development planned in DFW (CBRE, H1 2026)
• 81%: year-over-year growth in DFW under-construction inventory (CBRE, H1 2026)
• 1.4%: vacancy across CBRE's primary North American data center markets, a record low (CBRE, H1 2026)
• 349,000: net new construction workers the U.S. needs in 2026, rising to 456,000 in 2027 (ABC)

What delivering under these conditions looks like

The contractors winning this work are the ones that treat workforce, safety and prefabrication as a single system. Dallas-based TDIndustries offers a current example. In March, Associated Builders and Contractors named the employee-owned firm the No. 1 top-performing U.S. contractor for plumbing and HVAC on its 2026 Top Performers list, citing Diamond status in ABC's STEP safety program and its Accredited Quality Contractor credential, which recognizes talent management, craft education and workforce development alongside safety and quality.

Weeks later, ABC awarded the firm a National Excellence in Construction Pyramid Award for a Texas data center project that required advanced mechanical systems, precision planning and accelerated execution to support next-generation high-density direct-to-chip liquid cooling. The same awards cycle recognized TDIndustries for a hospital ICU renovation completed inside a fully operating facility, where crews executed a live oxygen tap and installed prefabricated systems to half-inch tolerances. CEO Frank Musolino credited the firm's employee-owners for working in environments where there is no room for error. That combination of prefabrication, tight tolerances and crews that stay with the company is exactly what mission-critical owners are now buying.

What owners and operators should take from this

For data center developers and the facility teams who inherit these buildings, the lesson is to qualify mechanical partners on more than price. Ask how much of the system arrives prefabricated, how the contractor trains and retains its technicians, and whether it has already commissioned liquid-cooled data halls. In a market where every megawatt is preleased and the workforce is shrinking, the contractor's bench is as much a part of the schedule as the power delivery date.

Learn more about TDIndustries at [tdindustries.com](https://www.tdindustries.com/) or follow the company on [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tdindustries/).