GALLATIN, TENN. — Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has broken ground on an $800 million data center located roughly 18 miles north of Nashville in Gallatin. The company acquired the 809-acre development site earlier this year for $20 million under the name Woolhawk LLC, according to reports by local news site Gallatin News.
The 982,000-square-foot campus will be built to LEED Gold certification standards, using 80 percent less water than the average data center. The development will also be supported by 100 percent renewable energy. Facebook has signed contracts for 220 megawatts of solar energy in Tennessee in support of the project.
The company anticipates more than 1,100 construction workers will be onsite at the peak of construction, and the completed development will support approximately 100 new jobs in the form of technicians, engineers, facility managers, logistics professionals and security personnel.
“We’re excited about Facebook in Gallatin because of the advantages we think it is going bring to our community,” says Paige Brown, the city’s mayor. “We’re confident in the brightest of futures for both Facebook and the city of Gallatin.”
Facebook unveiled plans to build another $800 million data center 65 miles west of Chicago in Dekalb, Illinois, earlier this year. The Gallatin project will be the company’s 13th data center in the United States and 17th worldwide.
Facebook’s stock price closed at $261.30 per share on Thursday, Aug. 13, up from $188.45 one year ago, a 38 percent increase year-over-year.
—Katie Sloan