Facebook plans $750 million investment in Henrico

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - Facebook is planning to start phase two of a data center in Henrico next month that will include about a nearly $1 billion investment, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday.

This comes less than a year after the social media giant announced an initial $1 billion investment at White Oak Technology Park in Sandston.

“The Commonwealth’s data center industry is one of the strongest in the nation, and Facebook’s decision to make a second substantial investment in Henrico County less than a year after its first announcement speaks volumes about the quality of our workforce, IT infrastructure, and business climate,” Northam said.

The second investment is an additional $750 million that will help construction three new 500,000-square-foot buildings. The first phase began construction on two buildings.

Facebook says the expanded site will bring more than 200 jobs, as well as 1,500 construction jobs.

According to Matt Vanderzanden, the Director of Site Selection for the data centers for Facebook, these are jobs they hope to hire for from the potential pool of applicants in the local area.

“Part of the reason we came to Henrico County is because we knew of the talented workforce around here, so we’re optimistic we can hire from the local area,” Vanderzanden said.

Vanderzanden said this is Facebook’s 11th data center.

"A data center is a large amount of network computers which will come together to store, to aggregate, analyze and distribute data," Vanderzanden said.

According to Data Center Knowledge, Facebooks's data centers "house their storage so every time you share information on Facebook, the servers in these data centers receive the information and distribute it to your network of friends."

“We are honored to have Facebook on our corporate roster, and we look forward to building on our partnership,” said Northam. “Virginia is committed to providing the framework, tech talent and training programs for industries of the future, and today is another milestone in our efforts to win major projects for the Commonwealth.”

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