Facebook announces plans for second building at Altoona data center

Almost exactly a year after the social media giant announced it would build a $299.5 million data center in Altoona, Iowa, Facebook announced it hopes to break ground on a second data center building on the campus soon, pending approval from the City of Altoona Planning and Zoning Board and Altoona City Council…


A year after its announcement, construction and assembly at Facebook’s Altoona data center continues. 

Almost exactly a year after the social media giant announced it would build a $299.5 million data center in Altoona, Iowa, Facebook announced it hopes to break ground on a second data center building on the campus, pending approval from the City of Altoona Planning and Zoning Board and Altoona City Council.

The Board, which meets Tuesday evening, must approve Facebook’s plans for Altoona 2, a roughly 475,000-square-foot building, before it goes before the City Council on May 5. 

So far, Facebook reports more than 460 people, mostly from central Iowa, have spent time working on the data center’s first building, Altoona 1. Construction on Altoona 1 is still underway, but the Des Moines Register reported last week the company’s presence in the area has already helped spur small-business growth and fostered local economic development efforts.

While Altoona 1 likely won’t start servicing traffic until early 2015, the data center is expected to operate using 100 percent renewable energy, largely through a partnership with Iowa wind project developer RPM Access and MidAmerican Energy. 

The Altoona location will be Facebook’s fourth owned and operated data center—the others are in Prineville, Ore.; Forest City, N.C.; and Luleå, Sweden.

For continuing updates, like the “Altoona Data Center” page on Facebook 


Credits: Photo from Facebook’s Altoona Data Center page

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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One response to “Facebook announces plans for second building at Altoona data center”

  1. […] in April 2013, a process Durham joked Friday took “less time to build than negotiate.” A year later, Facebook announced plans for Altoona 2, the second building on Facebook’s campus that is […]