Holiday lights, a Christmas tree and hot chocolate marked the opening of a multi-use path at the new QTS Data Center on Wednesday night, as the city of Fayetteville joined QTS leaders and community partners to celebrate the company’s growing presence in Fayette County.
Visitors arriving for the event were greeted by a brilliant holiday light display featuring 2,300 linear feet of lights stretching across nearly every square inch of QTS’s Highway 54 road frontage, transforming the entrance into a glowing seasonal landmark. A 40-foot Christmas tree, positioned near the new path entrance, served as the centerpiece; the company lit it during a countdown at the ceremony, drawing cheers from the crowd.
The celebration also featured a major act of holiday generosity as QTS presented a $20,000 donation to the I-58 Mission, a local nonprofit that serves economically disadvantaged residents with food, clothing, and practical support.
A path built for regional connectivity
The new 3,000-foot path segment runs along the southern edge of QTS’s Fayetteville property and is designed to connect directly to existing local trail infrastructure. Local leaders say the project represents a significant step toward the strategic vision of a countywide cart path network linking Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone, and unincorporated areas.
Niki Vanderslice, president and CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, said the QTS-funded path extends the county’s broader mobility network.
“This path is private investments, support of a county-wide path system connectivity throughout, including, but not limited to Tyrone, Peachtree City, Fayetteville, unincorporated Fayette County,” Vanderslice said. “Being able to build on the infrastructure that is in place with the 130 plus miles of park path that there is—that connectedness—and this is another component of that done on the private side.”
She added that work to encourage such private participation has been ongoing. “We led the effort on the trip to Bentonville that brought up the opportunity to the forefront,” Vanderslice said. “But Fayette Forward is really the lead agency on that, and so you wanted to give credit to Eric Dial as the executive director of Fayette Forward.”
Dial, who also serves as mayor of Tyrone, said the QTS project aligns directly with the regional connectivity strategy Fayette Forward is advancing.
“Fayette Forward’s goal is to see connectivity between all of our neighbors throughout the county,” Dial said. “For them to put a piece at this location is central to what we want to try to achieve, whether it’s from Peachtree City to Fayetteville, or Fayetteville to Tyrone.”
He said private investment is helping move the countywide vision closer to reality. “To have private funding going to supporting this instead of taxpayer funding is a huge gift to our county,” Dial said. “Our taxpayers will see many, many more paths across the county, and this is just a good first start, a good start.”
City leaders praise QTS partnership
Fayetteville Mayor Ed Johnson opened the ceremony by thanking QTS for its collaboration and sustained investment.
“Thank you for the opportunity to come together on this special occasion,” Johnson said. “Thank you for QTS and all that they are contributing to our community.”
He highlighted cooperation among QTS, city staff, contractors, and local organizations. “For years to come, we will reap the benefits, but more than anything else, we’re reaping the benefits now of the partnership that QTS is doing and contributing to our community,” Johnson said.
Company leaders say the path reflects QTS’s mission
QTS co-CEOs Tag Greason and David Robey told attendees that the project is a tangible expression of the company’s values.
“When we go into a community and spend time and energy and build relationships, it sometimes culminates in cool events like this,” Greason said.
Robey said the symbolism resonates with the company’s mission statement. “Our mission statement is to love each other, serve our communities and connect the world,” he said. “As we’re celebrating the path, how symbolic that is at representing what we strive to aspire to every day.”
Greason added that seeing residents enjoy the new path was meaningful for the team. “Watching the smiles on the people’s face when we lit the tree and they walk down the path is really very rewarding,” he said.
Public access on privately maintained land
The new path runs along the entire southern border of the QTS property and will eventually extend up the east side, creating a continuous public route that links two existing pedestrian segments. Greason emphasized that QTS will maintain the portions that sit on company land.
“We do not want this to be a burden to the community,” he said. “All the sections that we have that are adjacent to our properties, we will continue to maintain.”
He said the company deliberately opened the space for public use. “This is on our property that we have donated to the project that ultimately allows people to enjoy this path for many, many years to come,” Greason said.
Workforce safety and managing a ‘small city’ on site
With between 4,500 and 5,000 construction workers on site each day, the Fayetteville project functions like a temporary city — one that requires extensive planning for safety, transportation, and daily movement.
“It’s a small city,” said John Mansour, QTS director of development for the Southeast. “We have visitor facilities. We have on-site police, EMS, response teams. We’ve really tried to be self-contained.”
Mansour said the company works to limit strain on surrounding roads. “We build on-site parking, internal. We forward planned east parking for when we don’t have parking on site. We now have 20 shuttles that move people to and from off site to keep traffic down.”
He described a layered approach to safety that begins before workers step onto the job site. “We have daily trainings every day for every worker. We have stand downs. We have lunch and learns,” Mansour said. “Every person on site goes through orientation to make sure they know the rules, where they’re going, what’s going on, daily.”
Worker wellbeing is also embedded into the physical layout of the site. “Creating good places to work and good campuses for the team members to work is actually the best way to keep people safe on site,” he said.
Each building includes large enclosed break areas designed for comfort and recovery. “Every building has 2,000-person tents with anything from full AV to vending machines to basketball courts to break areas lunch with heat and AC,” Mansour said.
QTS also provides on-site physical therapy and daily warm-up routines. “Every morning they have to do stretch and flex to get warmed up for the day,” he said.
QTS expands charitable impact countywide
Beyond unveiling the path, the event also highlighted QTS’s charitable partnerships in Fayette County and across the country. Dave Murray, who oversees the company’s Community Impact program, outlined recent contributions.
“We’ve had close to 50 different organizations we’ve been giving to and over $600,000 within the Fayette County,” Murray said.
Murray also announced a continued holiday-season partnership with the I-58 Mission, and noted that QTS employees nationwide recently supported more than $600,000 in donations to food banks. This year’s event included an additional $20,000 contribution to help local families through the holidays.
Construction partners will also participate in holiday giving. Mansour shared that QTS will distribute 5,000 turkeys to construction workers, city employees, firefighters, police officers, and local food banks. “We’re very excited to continue that tradition,” he said.
Fayetteville campus stands out among QTS’s global portfolio
QTS operates in 18 states with 75 buildings in the U.S. and Europe. When complete, the Fayetteville site will include nine data center buildings, with full campus completion expected in 2027. Buildings 1 and 2 are already completed and fully operational, while buildings 3, 5, 9 and 10 are currently under development.
Greason said Fayetteville has become a highlight within the company. “The Fayetteville project has been one of the most successful projects that we’ve had,” he said. “Every single person here at Fayetteville comes together and works with us to solve the problems.”
He also noted the scale of the development. “It is definitely one of the largest in the world,” he said, describing the site as “probably the most successful at this point in the project.”
Once fully operational, the campus is expected to support 800 to 1,000 permanent jobs.
Early reports point to major tenants
While QTS does not disclose customers, Bloomberg reported in 2024 that Microsoft has signed on as a tenant as part of the company’s broader cloud and AI expansion. The report highlighted Fayetteville as one of QTS’s major hyperscale developments but did not identify which buildings Microsoft or other customers will occupy.
Looking ahead
The event concluded with a Christmas-tree lighting and a drone photo of attendees gathered along the illuminated trail. Robey said the company hopes this project is just the beginning.
“It is a privilege to be here, be part of this community,” Robey said. “We hope that this serves as one of many great moments in the future to come.”
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