Facebook will begin construction of a 970,000 sq. ft. data center at the Sweetwater Industrial Park in Eagle Mountain, Utah.
Eagle Mountain City, together with the Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED) and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah) announced on May 30 that Facebook will begin construction of a 970,000 sq. ft. data center at the Sweetwater Industrial Park in Eagle Mountain, Utah.
Facebook's investment includes more than $100 million in infrastructure, including a new electrical substation that will bring 1000 megawatts of new power delivery capacity to the region to support additional economic development in Eagle Mountain and the surrounding area. The data center would be powered by 100 percent, net-new renewable energy through utilization of Rocky Mountain Power's available renewable energy tariffs. Facebook will purchase its own water rights and construct the required water infrastructure. The data center facility is designed to be incredibly water-efficient and will reuse water multiple times.
“After a thorough search, we selected Eagle Mountain for a number of reasons — it provides good access to renewable energy, a strong talent pool, and a great set of partners,” said Rachel Peterson, VP of Data Center Strategy of Facebook. “We are excited to make Utah our new home and look forward to a long and successful partnership with the state, the city of Eagle Mountain, and our new community.”
The data center in its first phase would increase property tax currently collected for the 490-acre site by 12,000 times. The project represents a $750 million investment in Eagle Mountain, and will benefit the city, Utah County, Alpine School District, Central Utah Water Conservancy District, and Unified Fire Service Area.
“After years of research, planning, and preparation, in a coordinated effort among state, county, and local officials, this project is a big win for Eagle Mountain and Utah,” said Eagle Mountain Mayor Tom Westmoreland. “The fact that a company of this stature has chosen to partner with Eagle Mountain and invest here says a lot about our community and insures that we will have the economic base necessary to be a well-balanced city.”
The Facebook data center is expected to employ 30 to 50 people full time, with potential for more contract workers. This modest increase in employee headcount is appealing to Eagle Mountain City as it will not significantly impact local resources such as schools, fire and police services, or traffic in the rapidly growing area recently ranked by Census data as the fourth fastest-growing city in Utah.
“The state of Utah will benefit from the tremendous opportunity of welcoming Facebook to Eagle Mountain and Utah County,” said Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert. “This deal has been brought to fruition through cooperation and hard work across multiple agencies and stakeholders, setting an example for the rest of the nation in how to create a win-win economic benefit for our state both now and in the future.”
Over the past decade, Eagle Mountain City has developed and executed a master plan of leveraging data centers to build its tax base and economic foundation. City officials have worked with GOED, members of the state legislature, EDCUtah and Utah County officials on this Facebook data center facility and see it as a big first step to turn Eagle Mountain and Utah County into a hub of activity for the data center industry in the Western United States.
“A deal like bringing in Facebook requires dozens of entities and thousands of hours of work, much of which was undertaken by Eagle Mountain, Utah County and state officials,” said Theresa Foxley, president and CEO of EDCUtah. “The potential for financial return and infrastructure development is self-evident for this project, and really sets the city, county and state up for future success.”
Construction will begin this month and the data center is expected to come online in 2020.
For more information, visit eaglemountaincity.com, edcutah.org and edwards@utah.gov.
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