Prineville will be home to Facebook’s largest data center

(Update: Spokesman comments on what data centers store; Prineville mayor touts partnership)

Facebook’s presence in Prineville is growing again — to the tune of a $750 million data center expansion.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company announced Thursday it plans to develop an additional campus next to its existing Prineville Data Center facility.

K.C. Timmons, director of operations for Facebook, said the new buildings will hold a variety of information.

“So these are data halls. This is a physical manifestation of what people know as the cloud,” Timmons said. “So when you put photos of your kids and your grandparents and those memories on Facebook, this is where they are stored. This is the compute and the storage that’s behind that.”

The space is especially important as Facebook continues to make technological advancements.

“The more immersive experience between augmented reality and Facebook Live, that’s going to require infrastructure. So we’re constantly looking for opportunities to grow that infrastructure as we grow as a company,” Timmons said.

Construction of two new buildings will bring Facebook’s footprint in Prineville to more than 3.2 million square feet and will represent an additional investment of $750 million in the community, the social networking giant announced.

Prineville Mayor Betty Roppe said all that investment has been extremely important for the community’s development.

“They’re helping us. Their partnership allows us to build things we couldn’t have built otherwise; our wetlands, our refurbishing of the aquifer, all of those things they helped us with, wells,” she said. “Every aspect of our infrastructure has been in partnership with those people, and that’s really beneficial to us.”

A Facebook spokeswoman told The Associated Press the latest expansion will make the Prineville data center the company’s biggest. Facebook also has data centers in Forest City, North Carolina; Lulea, Sweden; and Altoona, Iowa.

Here’s the rest of the company’s announcement:

The new buildings are expected to support 100 new jobs for the region, bringing the total to more than 300. Groundbreaking on the buildings is scheduled to start in the coming weeks, and construction is expected to keep local crews busy until 2021.

“The city’s partnership with Facebook has allowed us to adapt to a changing world, while adding good -paying jobs,” said Roppe. “Thanks to Facebook’s added investment in our city, we can supplement investments in public safety, infrastructure, and other community improvements without burdening Prineville taxpayers.”

The City of Prineville collects franchise fees from both Facebook and Apple — which also houses a data center in Prineville — and directs those funds for a host of community improvement efforts, including public safety, streets, Barnes Butte open space, and Kiwanis splash park.

“As the location of our first data center, Prineville holds a special place for Facebook,” said Timmons, “We are proud to be part of this community and are excited to continue to strengthen our relationship with Prineville, Crook County, and the state of Oregon.”

In 2010, Prineville was selected to house Facebook’s first data center. To date, Facebook has announced a total of five buildings at the Prineville facility.

Since joining the Prineville community, Facebook has also provided nearly $1.5 million in grants to local organizations, including nearly a quarter of that to Crook County schools.

Company statement:

Since our first day in Prineville, we have been committed to playing a positive role in the community and investing in Crook County. Today, we are excited to announce that, as part of that commitment, our presence in Prineville will be growing. We will be developing a campus next to our existing facility that will be home to two new buildings. This new construction will bring our total Prineville footprint to more than 3.2 million square feet and will represent an additional investment of $750 million. We expect it will bring up to 100 additional jobs, adding to the more than 350 that are currently supported by our operations. We anticipate it will come online in mid 2020.

But our commitment to the community extends beyond this these buildings. This summer, we were thrilled to announce that our first five buildings will be supported by 100% solar energy. Two solar projects will be developed in Crook County and will increase the amount of solar power in Oregon by more than 20%. As with our existing Prineville campus, we anticipate these new buildings will join our list of hyper-efficient data centers and will supported by new renewable energy resources developed in the region.

Next month, we will also launch our Community Action Grants program for 2019. This program provides grants to schools and organizations in support of putting the power of technology to use for the community and promoting STEM education. Since joining the Prineville community, we have provided nearly $1.5 million in grants to local organizations, including nearly a quarter of that to Crook County Schools. The application window will be open in October. Check the Prineville Data Center Facebook page for further application information.

We could not have chosen a better place to build our first data center. Prineville, Crook County and the State of Oregon have been great partners from the beginning, and we are so happy about how we have evolved together over the last eight years.

We look forward to continuing our strong and fruitful partnership.

Thank you, Prineville!