Shakopee to Become for Site of CenturyLink Cloud Hub

Tuesday, Compass Datacenters L.L.C. announced that it had definitively chosen Shakopee as the site for a new data center campus. 

According to a statement from the City of Shakopee, Compass also disclosed that the the first data center in the complex would be developed for Savvis, a firm that is a part of the internet company CenturyLink. A data center is an enormous hive of computer servers that run round the clock. They are a necessary component of cloud computing. 

When fully operational, the Savvis data center will cover 100,000 square feet and sustain 4.8 megawatts of IT load. However, when the center opens in spring of 2014 its capacity will be a good deal smaller, accounting for just 1.2 megawatts and 13,000 square feet of raised floor space.

The Star Tribune reports that the facility will cost $26 million. 

In addition, Compass also submitted a "master plan" for the campus, which could ultimately include three more 25,000-square-foot data centers.

The city is still negotiating an incentive package with Compass, which initially asked for $2.1 million in assistance from Shakopee alone, including a $1,482,000 tax abatement over 10 years. The Economic Development Advisory Committee advised the council to cut that figure down to $281,659. In May, the City Council approved a $251,555 nine-year property tax abatement deal. However, the two parties have yet to come to a final agreement.