Design LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of tech giant Google, selected Baltimore-based Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. to build a $600 million data center in Wasco County, Oregon, according to filings with The Dalles Community Development Department.
The 290,000-square foot facility will add to Google’s already existing data center footprint in the area. Since 2006, the tech giant has invested over $1.8 billion into its Oregon facilities, according to the Mountain View, California-based company.
Google selected the Wasco County area due to its energy infrastructure, developable land and available workforce, according to Google.
Google’s data center footprint
The project follows other similar data center developments across the country for Google over the past few years, including:
- Three data centers worth $1.7 billion in Ohio.
- Two $800 million facilities in Temple, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri.
- A $600 million data center in Mesa, Arizona.
- A $350 million data center campus in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Along with Google, other hyperscalers continue to aggressively buy land and hold it for future data center use, according to Databank, a Dallas-based provider of data center services. Hyperscalers, technology companies that operate massive data centers, account for about 60% to 70% of new data center absorption, according to Databank.
For example, Meta Platforms, the Menlo, California-based company formerly known as Facebook, recently selected earlier this month New York City-based Turner Construction to build a new $800 million data center campus in Jeffersonville, Indiana.
Meanwhile, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure, a Broomfield, Colorado-based data center developer, tapped Atlanta-based Holder Construction to build its $1.9 billion data center campus in Mesa, Arizona. Additionally, Amazon, another major hyperscaler in the sector, shared plans last year to build a $515 million data center farm in Hilliard, Ohio.
