No vacancy: Prineville data center builders bring squeeze

Apple announced this week they’ll be building a third data center in Prineville. The tech company will also be adding a 70,000-square-foot logistics building as well.

Facebook also is well along with its third data center as Prineville, a once-thriving timber town, is growing into a high-tech magnet.

Crook County Commissioner Ken Fahlgren said Thursday the companies are attracted to the area’s cool climate.

Apple and Facebook came to Prineville after county leaders offered tax incentives.

The data centers use a large amount of water to cool down their servers, and that water can be used more than once.

“They should be able to recycle that (water) as many as six times,” Fahlgren said.

But living space around the city is tight, with zero availability when it comes to hotels and apartments.

Construction on the new data Apple center could last for a whole year, and that means construction workers will need a place to stay.

Thirty-five construction workers are on the wait list at the Executive Inn, and it’s the same story for all the hotels around Prineville.

“I probably will get 10 people that I have to refuse lodging to,” Executive Inn Manager John Beach said.

Beach said rooms with a kitchen are in high demand, because construction workers stay for a long period of time.

Hotel rooms available to workers are limited, because they also need to have rooms for tourists who come through Prineville.

“We have people who have made reservations in a year in advance,” Beach said. “They want a certain room, the room they had last year, and that is why they make reservation for the year to come.”

Fahlgren said the availability issue can’t be a short-term fix.

“Well, it’s a problem,” he said. “We would like them to turn to Prineville to buy our gas and burgers, but at the same time, we’re telling them we have no place for them to stay.”

The new Apple data center should be completed by next year.