The D-FW area was behind Northern Virginia, Northern California and Chicago in data center demand last year.
JLL predicts that data center demand will soar in 2017, as Internet use and mobile data streaming continue to grow in the U.S.
"The data centers market is very fluid, but a few things are certain," JLL's Bo Bond said in a just released forecast. "Cloud adoption is soaring, technology innovation will not slow down, data center portfolios are consolidating and rack densities are ascending rapidly."
North Texas is seeing widespread data center construction, with projects underway by Raging Wire, T5 and Digital Realty.
JLL reports that Facebook has purchased another 50 acres in North Fort Worth to grow its new $1 billion data center campus there.
The real estate firm said new North Texas projects are being eyed this year by QTS, Equinix and Cyrus One.
"Over the next 12 months, we expect to see user demand for smart data center solutions continue to heat up, while operators will feel the heat to deliver more data facilities, faster and more flexibly than ever," JLL said in the report.
©2017 The Dallas Morning News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
