Iowa's development as an unlikely data center hub continues, with TEAM Companies announcing this week that it is moving ahead with plans to $15 million in a new data center in Waukee, Iowa. On Monday the Waukee City Council approved a proposed site plan for the TEAM facility.
"While we aren't announcing the data center project at the moment, the council's action moves plans forward," said Mark Kittrell, TEAM's vice president of business development. The site plan for a data center in Waukee calls for a 46,000 square foot facility to be built in three phases. The center would employ 11 people earning salaries between $40,000 and $100,000.
"We first had the Google announcement. We then had the Microsoft announcement and that really confirms everything we've been saying - that Iowa is a great place for tech farms and for world class companies," Leann Jacobson, president of the Technology Association of Iowa, told WHO TV.
TEAM Companies has said it intends to build in Midwest markets over the next five years. The company's first facility, built on spec, was a 24,000 square foot facility in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Last September TEAM opened a 55,000 square foot data center in Fitchburg, Wisconsin with CDW Berbee as the anchor tenant.
"We believe in building our centers in the Upper Midwest," said Kittrell. "We think the region is ideal for data centers because of the low risk of terrorism, earthquakes and other natural disasters. We build our centers to withstand tornados and carefully choose sites outside of flood plains. We call our method security through obscurity."
