A new data center is set to be developed in Huntington, West Virginia.
Regional press report that local MSP Alpha Technologies will renovate the former Appalachian Power Company building at 1125 6th Avenue in Cabell County into a 60,000 sq ft, Tier III-quality data center.
Work on the project will begin next month, with phase one set to be completed around March 2025. The company will reportedly invest $10 million in the project.
"The ultimate goal of creating a bridge is to not only support the vision that Mayor Williams has but to further support Thundercloud's mission of creating a middle mile fiber network to help drive both business and economic growth," Alpha Technologies CEO Doug Tate said during a press conference this week.
According to an EPA report, the 1125 6th Avenue property was previously used by Appalachian Power Company as an office building. The company ceased using the building in the early 2000s and was purchased by the Appalachian Transportation Institute (formerly the Rahall Transportation Institute) in 2011. The institute had planned to redevelop the site for manufacturing business use, but this never materialized and it has remained largely unused since.
The new data center facility will reportedly be anchored by the fiber network currently under construction by Thundercloud and the City of Huntington, which aims to extend high-speed fiber connectivity to every home and business in the region.
Thundercloud aims to roll-out an 11-mile, 144-count, underground broadband fiber backbone connecting the Village of Barboursville to downtown Huntington, and deploy a last-mile, underground fiber ring linking businesses and anchor institutions to gigabit-speed infrastructure. The company has secured more than $2.3 million from the state for the project.
Founded in 2000, Alpha offers colocation, hosting, cloud, cybersecurity and networking services, and currently operates a data center at the West Virginia Regional Technology Park in South Charleston. A former Union Carbide data center, the 79,700 square foot (7,400 sq m) facility was acquired by Alpha in 2012. It serves several government clients.