GRAND RAPIDS – A Las Vegas company confirmed Monday that it could build a $5 billion data center in a Grand Rapids suburb – if state legislators approve hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks.
Switch would create a new SUPERNAP data center campus in Caledonia, south of Grand Rapids, in and around a pyramid-shaped building formerly owned by Steelcase Inc. Switch said that its two million square feet datacenter would be the largest in the eastern United States hosting one thousand clients, including eBay, Intel, Shutterfly, Amazon, HP, JP Morgan Chase, Google, Amazon, Fox Broadcasting and many more.
The project will create thousands of construction jobs over an estimated 10-year build out, according to a Switch news release. In addition, Switch and its clients could employ a thousand or more people to work at its campus.
“We are excited to be working with Governor Snyder, the Michigan Legislature, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and The Right Place, Inc. to bring Switch and its 1,000+ clients that make up the largest data center ecosystem in the world to Michigan,” said Executive Vice President of Strategy for Switch, Adam Kramer in a press release.
But according to Birgit Klohs, the President and CEO of The Right Place, it’s not a done deal yet. Michigan is competing with New York to land the multi-billion-dollar project,
“Until this legislation is passed, there is no deal, nothing has been signed, no building has been sold, no contract has been signed, no one’s been hired,” she told a Grand Rapids TV reporter. Lawmakers in West Michigan said the proposed bills for the tax breaks should start moving through Lansing by the end of the year.
Switch’s arrival “will unleash countless” opportunities in the state, said Klohs. “The future of business will be driven by data, and Michigan will be well positioned as a hub of data innovation.”
Switch said part of the appeal is that Michigan is far from traditional earthquake zones and other natural risks on the coasts. The $5 billion figure reflects the costs for both the data centers and the computer servers that will be placed inside the buildings over a multi-year period, according to Switch.
A Grand Rapids TV reporter spoke with James VanderMey, the co-owner of Open Systems Technologies in Grand Rapids, who works to provide companies like Johnson Controls, Steelcase and NASA with data service centers much like ‘Switch SUPERNAP.’
VanderMey says, not only will Switch create lots of jobs in West Michigan, it’ll act as an incubator for other companies around the state.
“Switch SUPERNAP Data Centers are the best commercial data centers in the world. They’re extraordinarily sophisticated, they have hundreds of patents, this is really the industry leading company,” VanderMey said. “This is now a facility that will host companies like Ebay, Amazon, the internet scale companies of the world that’s really an opportune to bring that to Grand Rapids.”
Vandermey says a data center of this size attracts big name clientele and provides companies digital storage in need of Switch’s cloud space.
“We see it as a positive because the kind of services Switch will provide to its customers are the kinds of services we can leverage to create new products for our clients,” Vandermey said.
