Facebook eyes third data center
Company submits plans for new facility in Prineville
By Elon Glucklich / The Bulletin
Published: August 14. 2012 4:00AM PST
Facebook wants to build a third data center in Prineville.
The social media giant filed an application with the city Aug. 6 for the new, smaller, data center near its current buildings on Southwest Connect Way, northeast of the Prineville Airport.
The new center would be a fraction of the size of the 334,000-square-foot data facility opened in April 2011 and the twin building that's under construction next door.
But it would add to the growing number of data centers being built along state Highway 126, enough to prompt a San Francisco Bay Area electric company that specializes in solar installations and data centers to open an office in Prineville.
The Aug. 6 Facebook application proposes a facility with three "data halls," planning documents show.
While there is no timeline for the project, the finished facility would be about 62,000 square feet, said Facebook spokesman Lee Weinstein.
The proposal doesn't necessarily mean Facebook will move forward any time soon, Weinstein said.
The application gives city and county officials a chance to review the plans and respond with any building or infrastructure issues.
"Facebook decides when and if to build additional structures as business needs dictate," Weinstein said. "This building has always been on the drawing board."
The proposed data center wouldn't create any full-time jobs. The 20 to 30 Facebook employees that will staff the second data center would be expected to handle operations at the third facility.
Data centers provide a location for secure storage of photos, music and other digital information on computer servers. A typical data hall also includes power generators and in-house cooling systems.
With 955 million users, as of late spring, Facebook stores more than 100 petabytes of data across its worldwide network, according to company documents filed in May, when the company became publicly traded. That's equivalent to slightly more than 1 trillion megabytes. The company also owns a data center in Forest City, N.C.
Facebook's talks with Prineville and Crook County officials have included proposals for more data center facilities, on top of the three on file, said Joshua Smith, Prineville senior planner.
The Aug. 6 plan is actually the fourth facility Facebook has discussed, Smith said.
"They had plans to build another large building," Smith said. "They haven't applied for it yet, but we assume they will (eventually). You never know what their plans are."
Weinstein said he couldn't disclose Facebook's long-term plans in Prineville, saying they could change along with market conditions and demand for added data storage.
But the push to build new data centers was enough to lure San Jose, Calif.-based Cupertino Electric Inc. to Prineville. The engineering firm does large-scale custom electrical work and solar installation, bringing energy to facilities with large power demands.
Brett Boncher, manager of Cupertino's data center division, said in a written statement that the company leased office space in Prineville in hopes of securing work on future data center projects. The company plans to staff its Prineville office with a project manager and support staff.
"We're looking to capitalize on the opportunities presented by current and future clients who have decided to build projects in the area. We've done various projects in the Pacific Northwest, and we're simply formalizing our involvement in the community," Boncher's statement read.
Just across Highway 126 from Facebook, Apple is building a 10,000-square-foot data center on 160 acres the company bought from Prineville in February.
The timeline for that project is uncertain, and it's not expected to have any full-time employees.
Prineville officials don't know when the Apple center will be operational. City Manager Steve Forrester said he has not received a timeline from the company. "I don't have that information," Forrester said. "I wish I did."
A message and email left with an Apple spokeswoman wasn't immediately returned Monday.
But Forrester said construction crews have been at the site since shortly after Apple's purchase of the land in February. He said the expectation is for Apple's data center to be operational "very shortly."
And more Apple facilities are expected to pop up in the next year. The company is required to employ 35 workers in Prineville by next March, under the conditions of its property-tax exemption.
Since the existing facility is expected to run without full-time employees, Forrester said it's likely Apple will come forward with additional facility plans later this year.
"As far as their larger plans, we have had discussions with them, and they certainly have some ideas as far as what that might look like," Forrester said.
Apple also has a data center in North Carolina, and the company got permission earlier this month to build a data center in Reno, Nev.
Prineville and Crook County planners, meanwhile, are doing just about everything possible to open up more land for data centers.
Officials met on Aug. 1 to voice their approval for an adjustment of Prineville's urban growth boundary. The swap would put 80 acres of industrial land near Facebook's and Apple's data centers inside Prineville's growth boundary, opening it for development.
Officials told The Bulletin at the Aug. 1 meeting that the swap came amid interest from several unnamed companies about building there.
Prineville has been seeing economic benefits from data-center construction, Forrester said, with dozens of workers shopping downtown and eating at local restaurants.
Crook County's unemployment rate was 12.8 percent in June, according to Oregon Employment Department figures. That's 45 straight months of double-digit unemployment.
"This is way bigger than Prineville and Crook County," he said. Construction work on the centers is "employing people from Bend, Redmond and Madras. It's good for Prineville, but at the same time it's huge for all of Central Oregon, and huge for the state."
—Reporter: 541-617-7820, eglucklich@bendbulletin.com
