A former chip manufacturing plant with over 1,000,000 sq ft of building on 210 acres in Henrico county is the site of a new QTS data center. The location was originally developed by chip maker Qimonda AG. When Qimonda filed for bankruptcy it closed the plant and laid off 1,500 people in 2009, reports Data Center Frontier(DCF).

According to DCF, the Richmond area was attractive for this hyperscale data center in part because of the new undersea internet cables linking Virginia Beach with Europe and Latin America and the Henrico County Board of Supervisors reducing the business property tax rate on data center equipment by almost 90%. The trans-Atlantic cables are owned by Microsoft and Facebook and operated by Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica SA. Mid-Atlantic Broadband links the Virginia Beach cable landing to much of Southside Virginia.

For details on “The Economic and Fiscal Contribution that Data Centers Make to Virginia” check out the Mangum Economics report for the Northern Virginia Technology Council.

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