Facebook to expand White Oak data center site

It hasn't been quite a year since Henrico County and Facebook became friends, but the social media behemoth decided to send the county an early notification of that milestone today.

Facebook announced that it will invest $750 million to add three buildings to the two-building data center it's already constructing at Henrico's White Oak Technology Park – more than doubling the project's overall size to about 2.4 million square feet of space. The company will add at least another 100 jobs to the 100 it already planned at the site.

In total, Facebook is investing $1.75 billion in the site.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam joined Henrico officials and Facebook executives at a press conference at Henrico's western government center this afternoon to make the expansion announcement.

“This expansion is affirmation that Facebook made the right choice last year when it selected Henrico’s White Oak Technology Park as the site for its new data center," said Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson, whose district includes the site. "The infrastructure is here, and so is the talent to support it.”

The project will yield about $10 million a year in taxes, Nelson said.

When Facebook announced its entry into Henrico last October on a 330-acre site at White Oak, company officials suggested that an expansion of the site could happen eventually. No one expected it to come this soon, though.

"I was thinking 10 years down the line for the second part of it," Nelson said. "This helps shoot a level of injection into the tech park."

The first phase of construction is progressing rapidly, and the first two buildings should open sometime during the first half of next year, company officials said. The second phase will begin to take shape next month, with an expected completion sometime in 2020.

“This is truly an exciting time for Henrico,” Vithoulkas said. “A year ago, we told our friends at Facebook that we would be with them throughout the course of this project. That commitment is stronger than ever as the company moves ahead with this expansion."

Facebook's decision to expand a data center site isn't unique, Facebook Director of Site Selection Matt VanderZanden told the Citizen, but the situation in Henrico is.

"It's not our first announcement of an expansion, but it was definitely the right time," VanderZanden said. "The partnership has been amazing here, it really caused us to perk our ears up and get going on the second phase as quickly as possible. We're really excited."

Whether the company adds to the site again will be based upon additional business needs, VanderZanden said.

Regardless of Facebook's additional plans, several county officials indicated privately to the Citizen that other major economic development announcements – perhaps including another at White Oak – are imminent.