Data center to be built at Greenville’s Global Trade Park

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Southeastern tech company DC Blox will build a Tier III data center, its fifth across four states, in Greenville’s Global Business Park with an expected investment of more than $200 million.

Doors are set to open at the center’s six-acre campus in the third quarter of 2021. A full-build-out will extend across 45,000 square feet of a 15-megawatt data center separated into five distinct data halls, according to a news release.

“Greenville and the Upstate are a vibrant, entrepreneurial-driven region that will greatly benefit by DC Blox’s presence in the state,” Jeff Uphues, CEO of DC Blox, said during a virtual event today. “It is our vision to serve locally and connect globally on behalf of customers. Serving locally means DC Blox is a company that gets involved and stays involved.”

The data center, predicted to bring five “high-paying” jobs, according to Mark Farris, CEO of the Greenville Area Development Corp., will offer colocation, connectivity and cloud storage services including private network access with a capacity of more than 100 Gbps and public cloud providers. Clients at the company’s Atlanta, Chattanooga, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Huntsville, Ala., locations include content and cloud providers, wireless and managed service providers, state and local government, health care providers and educational institutions, according to a news release.

Uphues said that he has been eying Greenville as the home for a new data center for at least 16 years. The move has been several years in the making and was piloted through assistance from the Greenville Area Development Corp., city of Greenville, the S.C. Commerce Department, and Vivian Wong, CEO and owner of the Global Trade Park/Fairforest of Greenville.

“The vibrancy of what you have in your business community in the Upstate region is just beyond impressive,” Uphues said during the virtual unveiling. We can see clearly why so many people refer to South Carolina and the Upstate region, and Greenville in particular, as the beast of the Southeast and the economic development engine to bring so many companies here that call Greenville home.”

The company will receive a grant from Duke Energy’s Carolina Investment Fund for project expenditures, while the Commerce Department’s Coordinating Council has approved a $50,000 Set-Aside grant for the county to cover some site preparation and building improvement costs, according to the release. Greenville’s Brasfield & Gorrie will serve as contractors for the project.

“Announcements like today’s are important for many reasons: good-paying jobs, new capital investments stimulating other business activities, increasing our tax base and drawing the attention of other top companies to the Upstate,” Butch Kirven, chairman of the Greenville County Council, said during the event. “Today’s announcement is about adding leading edge capabilities and meeting the needs of today’s data-driven business requirements. This is something to be really excited about.”