DataBank Eagan Venture Recognized as Business Recruitment Project of the Year

As awarded by the Economic Development Association of Minnesota

FARMINGTON, MN – February 17, 2015 – The Economic Development Association of Minnesota (EDAM) recognized Dakota Electric Association and the city of Eagan for their work in attracting national data center provider, DataBank, at the “Excellence in Economic Development Awards” ceremony held Jan. 22 in Brooklyn Park.

The DataBank project was selected as the “2015 Business Recruitment Project of the Year” not only for the immediate benefits of the project in terms of capital investment and job creation, but also because of the long-term benefits to business development and the state and regional economy.

DataBank, a national provider of data centers, managed services and cloud solutions, broke ground in the closing months of 2014 on a $49 million site renovation in Eagan. The building, scheduled to open early this spring, is undergoing a series of physical and mechanical augmentations to become the region’s premier multi-tenant data center. The facility will employ approximately 40 people and will function as a second “carrier-hotel” peering location for telecommunications companies to route traffic throughout the upper Midwest.

“Both carrier availability and power diversity played a big role in our site selection for this data center facility,” said DataBank CEO Tim Moore. “Throughout the process Dakota Electric, Great River Energy and AccessEagan partnered with us to see this project become a reality. We have the utmost confidence in all of them to deliver the robust network access, flexibility and reliability demands we require to deploy a flagship multi-tenant data center in this region.”

DataBank’s decision to locate in Eagan was due in large part to the city’s “AccessEagan” fiber network. The 17-mile wholesale fiber optic network was deployed by the city and is available to all broadband and telecommunications providers. AccessEagan was established as part of ongoing efforts over the last 10 years to broaden both fiber availability and redundancy and also to foster price competition.

Stimulating a greater choice of service providers for area businesses was coupled with the city’s strategy of attracting a world class data center that would help the region avoid any single point of broadband failure.

“We were very pleased that EDAM selected the DataBank project for this award,” said Dakota Electric Economic Development Director Mark Lofthus. “This one project will help to expand business development opportunities throughout the region for many years to come.”

“Working with such excellent partners like Dakota Electric and Great River Energy, we were able to get this deal done,” said Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire, who noted the city found in DataBank a quality company that could deliver on a shared vision.

About EDAM
EDAM is a professional association of leading economic developers in the state of Minnesota and provides development professionals a forum for exchanging information and staying abreast of current economic development strategies and practices.

About Dakota Electric Association
Dakota Electric Association is a member-owned, not-for-profit electric utility founded by local farmers in 1937 with the help of the Rural Electrification Administration. With more than 100,000 members, Dakota Electric is the second largest electric cooperative in Minnesota and ranked among the 25 largest electric distribution cooperatives in the nation. Dakota Electric purchases wholesale electricity from Great River Energy, a generation and transmission cooperative in Maple Grove, and distributes it to homes, businesses and farms in parts of Dakota, Goodhue, Scott and Rice counties.

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About DataBank

Recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies in 2023, DataBank helps the world’s largest enterprises, technology, and content providers ensure their data and applications are always on, always secure, always compliant, and ready to scale to meet the needs of the artificial intelligence era.

Our edge colocation and infrastructure footprint consists of 65+ “HPC-ready” data centers in 27+ markets, 20 interconnection hubs, and on-ramps to an ecosystem of cloud providers with virtually unlimited reach.

We combine these platforms with contract portability, managed security, compliance enablement, hands-on support, and a guarantee of 100% uptime availability, to give our customers absolute confidence in their IT infrastructure and the power to create a boundless digital future for their business.

To learn more, Follow us on LinkedIn or Subscribe to our YouTube channel. To tour a facility, visit DataBank or call 1(800) 840-7533.