Upstate data center finds home in Myrtle Beach

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Weeks after DC Blox opened the doors of its Greenville data center on April 12, the company announced plans to break ground on another South Carolina location with a $31.5 million investment.

Located along more than 21 acres at the Myrtle Beach International Technology & Aerospace Park in Myrtle Beach, DC Blox is building a 40,000-square-foot, specialized data center known as a Cable Landing Station that will serve as the landing point for subsea optical communication cables, according to a news release.

Operations are expected to go online in June 2023 at the facility, which will be engineered to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and, like Greenville’s location, built in compliance with the Uptime Institute’s Tier III standards, according to the company.

“The Southeast is exploding with opportunity, and investments in digital infrastructure are key to its growth,” DC Blox CEO Jeff Uphues said in the news release. “We are proud to announce plans for our second data center in the state of South Carolina with this new Cable Landing Station in Myrtle Beach. Our continued investments in data centers and fiber network infrastructure are a benefit to hyper-scalers, carriers and enterprises across the region, and we are thankful to the city of Myrtle Beach, Horry County and the state of South Carolina for their tremendous support in making this project happen.”

It will provide power to the cables to regenerate the optical signal, host local network equipment associated with the cables, provide colocation space for cable partners and local businesses, and serve as a regional exchange point for communications providers. The new location will create three new jobs, according to the release.

“Horry County is excited to welcome DC Blox to Team Horry,” Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner said in the release. “For more than three years as chairman, I have witnessed huge growth in our county’s economic development. DC Blox will be the start to an empty aerospace and technology park that we feel will flourish.

Founded in 2014, DC Blox connects businesses to destinations worldwide through a private network and global ecosystem of communications partners, according to the release. The company’s software-defined network provides connectivity to the cloud, partners and providers.

“I look forward to following the success of this company and the effect it will have on our county,” Gardner said in the release. “On behalf of Horry County Council and staff, thank you for believing in our community, and we look forward to DC Blox’s success and growth.”

Greenville’s DC Blox data center is currently expanding with a 9,000-square-foot data hall to accommodate “a large enterprise customer,” according to the company.