DC Blox confirms it will build data center
May 6—HIGH POINT — DC Blox confirmed Wednesday it will build and operate a multi-tenant data center on 14 acres at Sheraton Court and Piedmont Parkway in the Piedmont Centre business park in High Point.
Company officials and the High Point Economic Development Corp. made the announcement at the EDC's board meeting.
The project would create only nine or so jobs, but, once fully developed, it could entail a capital investment of $305 million, the largest in the city's tax base in at least 20 years.
The data center will house equipment such as servers for DC Blox clients.
The company announced in September that it was considering High Point for the project.
In October, the City Council and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners each authorized incentives deals for DC Blox that enable the company and its clients to get back up to 50% of the property taxes they pay for a set number of years.
This is the first time High Point has structured an incentives deal this way. The Publix distribution center under construction in Greensboro received this form of incentives.
DC Blox last week bought the land for the data center — four vacant tracts on Sheraton Court — for a total of $1.5 million.
CEO Jeff Uphues said the company hopes to begin construction this fall.
It will include up to 54,000 square feet of data hall space and 6,700 square feet of office space.
This will be the sixth data center in the Southeast owned and operated by DC Blox, which is based in Atlanta.
Uphues said the company began scouting locations in 2017 before settling on the Triad.
"The only thing this market was missing was a Tier III-certified, multi-tenant data center," he said. "Frankly, we were shocked that one was not in the region. There was plenty in Raleigh. There's enough in Charlotte."
The company's data centers serve industries such as hospital systems, banks and universities, as well as local and state governments.
pkimbrough@hpenews.com — 336-888-3531
