Meta, Facebook’s parent company, expands DeKalb Data Center; total local investment tops $1B – Shaw Local

DeKALB – Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced Wednesday it will expand its DeKalb Data Center on the city’s south side by three buildings, bringing with it a community investment that now totals more than $1 billion

Meta officials and city leaders scheduled a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the facility in the 1500 block of Gurler Road, which has been under construction since June 2020. Once work is completed, the nearly 2.4 million-square-foot facility will represent an investment of more than $1 billion with 200 operational jobs, according to a news release. Construction is expected to employ more than 1,200 workers over the length of the building, officials said.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our presence in Illinois,” Darcy Nothnagle, Meta’s director of community and economic development, said in a statement. “The city of DeKalb and the state of Illinois have been great partners from the beginning, and we look forward to a continued strong and fruitful partnership for years to come.”

DeKalb Mayor Cohen Barnes called Meta’s impact on the DeKalb area greater than an economic one.

“Since day one, they have made a concerted effort to make a larger impact on DeKalb,” Barnes said in a statement released before the news conference. “And I look forward, with this announcement, to seeing that partnership continue to grow over the years to come.”

The social media company also announced Wednesday its application window for schools and nonprofits in the area to receive financial support is now open. The company’s Community Action Grants program will launch in the fall in DeKalb County, according to the news release. The grants are available to schools and registered 501(c)(3)s in the area. For more information on the grant program, visit www.datacenters.fb.com/grants/.

As part of the launch, Meta has awarded a $50,000 grant to DeKalb School District 428 for the district’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs for elementary and secondary students this year.

DeKalb Superintendent Minerva Garcia-Sanchez said in a statement that she’s excited about the opportunities made greater by the grant.

“Meta continues to be a great partner to the district,” Garcia-Sanchez said in a statement. “We look forward to the future as we transform from being known as an agricultural community to one of the leading technological centers in the nation and we look forward to our future endeavors.”

Northern Illinois University President Lisa Freeman spoke about Meta’s potential to be a significant employer in the area.

“We look forward to expanding our excellent partnership with Meta to advance our mutual goals for advancing equitable economic development, innovation and educational attainment for the region,” Freeman said in a statement.

In what company officials said was an effort to lower Meta’s carbon footprint during construction of the data center, Meta also announced a partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The program will use artificial technology to aid in the development of a more sustainable concrete mix, according to the news release. The formula already has been tested at the DeKalb Data Center.

“These test applications confirm early signs that Meta has been able to successfully design and use concrete that meets our long-term strength requirements and has a 40% lower carbon impact than the regional benchmark,” the release states.

The DeKalb Data Center is Meta’s 16th in the world and is built on more than 500 acres on DeKalb’s south side. Founded in 2004, the world’s largest social media network is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, employs more than 48,000 people across the world, and operates data centers in Iowa, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Oregon, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Nebraska, Alabama, Georgia, Denmark, Singapore, Ireland and Sweden.

The development existed years ago under the code name Project Ventus until its announcement in 2020, and had been a fixture of the city of DeKalb and countywide business community for months. To incentivize the social media giant to come to DeKalb, tax abatements were offered by DeKalb area governments and Northern Illinois University and Kishwaukee College touted local workforce development.

At the time of its announcement, data center jobs were projected to start at $38.50 per hour according to city documents. Meta said at the time it planned to hire technicians, engineers, construction management, facility managers, logistics professors and security personnel.

The development also came with tax abatement provisions attached, per intergovernmental agreements signed by countywide taxing bodies over a period of a few months in the spring of 2020.

The Meta data center is privy to a 20-year, 55% property tax abatement plan, already approved by the council and agreed upon through the DeKalb County Enterprise Zone, a program administered by the DeKalb County Economic Development Corporation, with a stipulation of 50 tech jobs with a starting wage of $38.50 an hour to qualify for tax abatements within the first few years, documents show.

With its Wednesday announcement, it’s expected that more jobs will flow into the expanding center.

This is a developing story which will be updated as more information becomes available.