Why Switch Chose Grand Rapids for $5 Billion Data Center

Switch has announced that once three data center bills are passed, they will begin construction on the company’s new 2 million square-foot, $5 billion SUPERNAP data center campus at the site of the former Steelcase pyramid in Gaines Township.

See why the site is a good location for the data center.

The total $5 billion investment reflects the costs for both the data centers and the computer servers that will be placed inside the buildings over a 10-year period. It will be the largest data center campus in the eastern U.S.

Switch’s 1,000 clients include eBay, Intel, Shutterfly, Machine Zone (Game of War), Amgen, Dreamworks, HP, Intuit, Hitachi, JP Morgan Chase, Sony, Boeing, Cisco, EMC, Google, Amazon, Time Warner, Eli Lilly, Activision (Call of Duty) and Fox Broadcasting, among many others.

“I cannot overstate the impact Switch will have on both the greater Grand Rapids area as well as the entire state of Michigan,” said President and CEO, The Right Place, Inc. Birgit Klohs. “The unparalleled technology and data infrastructure investments planned by Switch will unleash countless new possibilities for growth in our state. The future of business will be driven by data, and Michigan will be well positioned as a hub of data innovation.”

Why build in Gaines Township at the former Steelcase pyramid?

• Switch builds its SUPERNAP facilities at inland locations that are still close enough to large cities to reach the millisecond protocols needed to safely serve major markets.
• SUPERNAP Michigan will be 2 milliseconds from Chicago and 14 milliseconds from New York.
• West Michigan places the data center close to high populations, but without the higher power prices and taxes.
• Locations which do not have the increased risk of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, are ideal.