Facebook has taken the next step in rounding out its Los Lunas data center campus, but a future expansion could be in the works for the social media giant.
Facebook spokeswoman Melanie Roe confirmed to Business First on Friday that construction on Facebook's fourth of six planned buildings has completed, but has yet to go online. The fourth building will serve as a cold storage building as opposed to data halls like the first three.
Business First reported the third building went online last June and Facebook anticipates the fifth building to be complete later this year.
Cold storage functions like a digital attic within a data center to store photos and videos and uses about a fraction of the power, Roe said. Construction on the entire planned data center campus is expected to last through 2023, according to previous Business First reporting. The first portion of the data center opened in February 2019.
But the Village of Los Lunas Council is considering $6.6 billion in industrial revenue bonds for Greater Kudu LLC, a subsidiary of Facebook, which would possibly add at least two data center buildings to the campus. If fully built-out, Facebook could add six additional data centers for a total of 12 buildings on its campus.
A spokesperson with Facebook confirmed Facebook filing the IRB application but added that it hasn't made a decision to expand as of Friday.
The two buildings will cost about $800 million to construct and equip. The expansion could help create “hundreds of construction jobs” and up to 30 additional full-time employees, according to a Jan. 28 agenda for the Village of Los Lunas Council meeting. The Council vote 4-0 on Jan. 28 to take the first steps to pursue taxable industrial revenue bonds for the benefit of Greater Kudu. It targeted mid-March as the next step in the process.
The data center already represents New Mexico's largest IRB project. Facebook is set to buy up to $30 billion in bonds over the next 30 years, according to previous Business First reporting.
Facebook purchased the remaining 400 acres in the Huning Ranch Business Park in April 2019. At the time, the company said it occasionally purchases available land if its future business needs requires it. Facebook said it had no plans to build on the land at the time.
