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November 23, 2015

Switch plans mega £5bn data centre site

News: Colo urges Michigan State to pass tax exemptions.

By Joao Lima

Known for its jumbo data centres, Switch has now confirmed plans to invest $5 billion in a new campus with a pyramid at its heart.

The 663,000 sqf pyramid shaped building is located in Gaines Township, West Michigan, US. The company is looking at building a total of two million sqf of data centre space.

Three of the proposed data centres are planned to be located on the outskirts of the pyramid. Another site is projected to be located in the pyramid’s basement.

The colo said the site would create 1,000 jobs over the course of ten years, the same time the data centre would take to be built.

The pyramid was originally built by furniture maker Steelcase at a cost of $111 million.

vegas

CBR visited Switch’s Las Vegas data centre last month.

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The company said that before it goes ahead with the project, it wants the state’s tax law to be changed. Policy makers in the Michigan House of Representatives have since introduced three bills that solicit property, sales and use taxes exemptions for Switch’s data centre project.

Switch requested the tax revision to be over by the end of Q4 2015, so construction could start in Q1 2016.

The colo is still facing competition from the Education Company Investors (ECI), which had plans to build an education hub in the same land.

ECI has filed a lawsuit against Steelcase which the company said it had committed to sell the pyramid to them but later dropped out to sell the site to a Switch representative.

Switch is also currently building what it claims to be the world’s largest data centre in Reno, Nevada, at nearly 6.5 million sq ft with up to 650 MVA of power.

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