Facebook building $1b data center

Reports out of Richmond say that Facebook is moving in next door. The tech giant is said to be building a $1 billion data centerin eastern Henrico County, a few miles east of town.

The first phase of Facebook’s new facility will span 970,000 square feet and add more than 100 full-time jobs to the area. As currently envisioned, follow-up phases would bring that total up to 2.5 million square feet and 240 full-time jobs.

The data center(s) will be on a 328-acre site at Technology Boulevard and Portugee Road within the White Oak Technology Park.  That’s the complex which also happens to also house the 1.3 million square foot former Qimonda semiconductor plant that is now a giant QTS data center.

Virginia as a whole has been a hot infrastructure market lately. The construction of the new MAREA cable system is bringing the state its own submarine cable access point at Virginia Beach, and new fiber has been put in the ground and on poles throughout the region in anticipation.