$5B Data Center Planned Near Grand Rapids

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After substantial consideration in the search for its eastern U.S. data center campus, Las Vegas-based Switch has announced Caledonia, near Grand Rapids will be home to the company’s new $5 billion, 2 million square-foot data center campus, if tax breaks are approved by state lawmakers.

“We are excited to be working with Gov. (Rick)  Snyder, the Michigan Legislature, the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and The Right Place, Inc. to bring Switch and its 1,000 plus clients that make up the largest data center ecosystem in the world to Michigan,” says Adam Kramer, executive vice president of strategy for Switch.  “Before Switch can finalize its announcement it will work with the Michigan Legislature to pass new data center legislation that creates an equal playing field between Michigan and its neighboring states.”

The total capital investment reflects the costs for both the data centers and the computer servers that will be placed inside the buildings over a multi-year period.  Kramer says SUPERNAP Michigan will be the largest data center campus in the eastern U.S. and will serve the company’s current clients in geographic redundancy and new clients with national connectivity.

The campus will provide transformational infrastructure and serve the eastern U.S. by offering the only Uptime Institute rated Tier IV Gold carrier-neutral colocation data center location outside of the SUPERNAP facilities in the western U.S.

“I cannot overstate the impact Switch will have on both the greater Grand Rapids area as well as the entire state of Michigan,” says Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place Inc. “The unparalleled technology and data infrastructure investments planned by Switch will unleash countless new possibilities for growth in our state. The future of business will be driven by data, and Michigan will be well positioned as a hub of data innovation.”

Kramer says the campus will create thousands of well-paid construction jobs over the estimated 10-year build out of the entire project. Similar to their construction projects in Nevada, a vast majority of Switch’s contractors will be hired from the local workforce. In addition, at full-build out Switch and its clients are projected to employ 1,000 people to work in the data center campus. With a current workforce comprised of 70 percent veterans, Switch will continue its commitment to hire the men and women who have served.

Switch’s 1,000 clients include eBay, Intel, Shutterfly, Machine Zone (Game of War), Amgen, Dreamworks, HP, Intuit, Hitachi, JP Morgan Chase, Sony, Boeing, Cisco, EMC, Google, Amazon, Time Warner, Eli Lilly, Activision (Call of Duty) and Fox Broadcasting, among many others.