Massive technology data center may be en route to Central Texas
ROUND ROCK, Texas (KXAN) — Switch, a Las Vegas-based company, has its eyes on the city of Round Rock.
The company announced it plans to build data buildings that add up to a 1.7 million square foot facility next to Dell’s Global Headquarters.
“We design, build and operate these massive fortresses inside which the internet lives,” said Missy Young Switch Chief Information Officer.
Those massive fortresses help operate the banks, movie theaters, health companies and cloud servers of the world. They’ll be housed next-door to Dell Technologies.
“We have a very long-standing relationship with Dell,” said Young. “Right now we’re working on several projects together including building the fourth cloud.”
Switch bought about 37 acres of land from Dell, which is where the City of Round Rock comes in. The project will require rezoning from commercial to planned unit development (PUD).
The City wants to make sure it’s being a good steward to the people who already live the Planning and Zoning Commission is set to hold a public hearing at its scheduled meeting on June 16.
“Data Centers, in general, are not huge creators of a high-number of jobs,” said Round Rock Chamber of Commerce Director Jason Ball. “In Switch’s case, they are a certain kind of data center called a ‘CoLocation’ data center which means they have several clients which buy space, services and sometimes use their own equipment.”
Jason Ball says this won’t necessarily make the traffic more congested in the area surrounding Dell Technologies. Switch doesn’t plan to bring in hundreds of new employees, but the individual companies who use the servers could filter in from time to time.
“There will potentially be thousands of jobs created indirectly by our customers who come to use the Switch Data Center in Round Rock,” said Young.
The big win for the City of Round Rock is generating more money in property tax revenues.
The City’s Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing and make a recommendation vote at its June 16 meeting.
Gloss