ROSEMOUNT, Minn. — The parent company of social media giants Facebook and Instagram is purchasing a piece of land in Minnesota for a new data center and will pony up a serious chunk of change to make it happen.
Meta has struck a deal to purchase land in Rosemount currently owned by the University of Minnesota (U of M) to construct a new data center. On Thursday, the U of M's Board of Regents voted to approve the sale of 280 acres from the university's UMore Park holdings to Meta.
The negotiated sale price is just under $40 million, and the deal would be closed by the end of Jan. 2024, when construction would begin.
The center will sit off of County Road 42 near the Dakota County Technical College. An application Meta filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission indicates the technology campus would include "a couple of main function buildings and additional ancillary buildings and support areas. The uses may include servers, administrative spaces, and support equipment in a campus setting of complimentary one-story buildings."
KARE 11's Jennifer Hoff confirmed that the Meta data center will be built at a budgeted cost of $700 million, and will operate 24 hours a day/seven days a week. The technological hub will collect, store, and allow access to large amounts of data. Expectations are that the center will support 50 full-time jobs and another 1,000 during a construction period that will last between two and five years.
MPR News reports that Meta had been trying to keep the project and proposed land purchase under wraps using a trade secret exemption since Xcel Energy filed a petition with the state to provide electricity for the data center last year.
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