DC BLOX will break ground in Aug. on a $785 million data center in the Birmingham Titusville Neighborhood

Atlanta-based DC BLOX is investing $785 million into Birmingham over the next 10 years to build their largest data center to date in the country. The data center will be located on 27 acres at the old Trinity Steel site in Birmingham’s Titusville neighborhood, the company announced at a press conference today.

The technology and innovation campus will drive the connected digital economy in the city as well as in the state of Alabama.

“I have a personal connection to the Titusville neighborhood, and I am glad that a property that has laid dormant for 30 years will be the site for the DC BLOX new data center, said Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin.

“We were proud to work with DC BLOX on a significant project that will transform the surrounding neighborhood. The company’s flagship data center will also serve as a tool to attract further business to the area.”

DC BLOX will build the same highly-secured, modular design and lean construction techniques currently being used for its Huntsville, AL data center. A groundbreaking for the multi-tenant facility in Birmingham will begin Aug. 2018, with Phase 1 delivering 31,000 square feet and opening in early 2019. The Birmingham facility will provide the same high-speed, high-capacity, private optical network as DC BLOX’s Atlanta, Huntsville and Chattanooga sites.

Jeff Uphues, Chief Executive Officer of DC BLOX stated that they looked at 40 cities for their flagship property, but it was the people of Birmingham and experiences that they had in the city that sold them on locating their secure, government-grade, data center space. Uphues said that Titusville site is a highly compelling alternative in the Southeast to Atlanta for enterprise, hyperscale cloud, Software-as-a-service, government network and content providers. He went on to say that the campus with collaborative workspaces would attract global technology companies and academia dedicated to research and growth.

“Our new data center will transform Birmingham into a new technology center and will bring highly, tech-skilled labor and other economic growth to the city for years to come. This project is a perfect example of a public, private partnership,” Uphues added.

The economic-development impact of this project during the construction and operational phase is $94 million to the Birmingham metro area, and more than $80 million of that impact will be in Jefferson County, according to an analysis by the University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Business and commissioned by the Birmingham Business Alliance. For the state as whole, the economic impact will be $99 million.

Some of the economic impact will be felt immediately. Mayor Woodfin announced that the over $600,000 made from the sale of the property will be deposited into the Neighborhood Revitalization Fund.

DC BLOX worked closely with the Alabama Department of Commerce, Jefferson County Commission, the City of Birmingham and its Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity, the Titusville Neighborhood Association, EDPA, the Birmingham Business Alliance, Alabama Power and Spire on making the new data center a reality.

“Birmingham is ready for tech companies to locate here, said Secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, Greg Canfield.

“Data centers represent the backbone of the technology infrastructure; we see strategic benefits for Alabama to host state-of-the-art centers that keep the world connected. DC BLOX adds its name to an impressive roster of technology companies selecting Alabama for their data centers.”