$750 Million Expansion of Facebook's Oregon Campus to Include New Data Center

Facebook announced that it will be building more data centers on at its Prineville, OR, campus, where it has built several data centers over the years. A post on the company’s Prineville Data Center Facebook page said, “This new construction will bring our total Prineville footprint to more than 3.2 million square feet and will represent an additional investment of $750 million. We expect it will bring up to 100 additional jobs, adding to the more than 350 that are currently supported by our operations. We anticipate it will come online in mid 2020.”

Earlier this year, Facebook announced its Prineville Facebook page that the first five buildings built on its Prineville facility will be supported by 100% solar energy. “Two solar projects will be developed in Crook County and will increase the amount of solar power in Oregon by more than 20%, the post said. "As with our existing Prineville campus, we anticipate these new buildings will join our list of hyper-efficient data centers and will be supported by new renewable energy resources developed in the region.”

Facebook has quite a presence in the small Prineville, OR, community (2016 population 9,928 residents). A www.oregonlive.com report on the new data centers in Prineville said, “At 3.2 million square feet, Facebook's Prineville footprint will be equivalent to putting 22 Costco stores in a community of just 10,000 people.” That report also said that Facebook and other tech companies (including Apple) build data centers in Oregon because of enticing tax breaks. “Property tax exemptions save the social networking company nearly $20 million a year, and those savings will grow as Facebook continues building,” www.oregonlive.com reported.