Facebook likes Fort Worth for new data center in AllianceTexas

Facebook is bringing a data center to Fort Worth.

Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that he will join local officials on Tuesday morning at a site in the Alliance industrial park in north Fort Worth for “the groundbreaking ceremony for a new Facebook Data Center.”

The project, rumored for months, has been held close to the vest by the California social media giant, which declined to comment on reports that it was planning a data center at Texas 170 and Park Vista Boulevard in AllianceTexas.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., has been growing its infrastructure to meet its expanding audience. It boasts 1.5 billion users, as well as several million more users of its Messenger and Instagram products.

City and county officials, as well as Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce executives, have also declined to comment on the project.

State filings, however, connected Facebook to the project, and some details are known.

The project will consist of three 250,000-square-foot buildings on a 110-acre site.

In May, the Fort Worth City Council approved a potentially lucrative, $146.7 million incentive package on real and business personal property taxes over the next 20 years — without naming the company. Facebook is committed to creating at least 40 jobs in Fort Worth. The city staff said the positions will earn an average $70,000 annually.

Tarrant County commissioners also approved a 10-year tax abatement for up to 60 percent of new real and business personal property value for Tarrant County and up to 40 percent for the Tarrant County Hospital District.

The Fort Worth data center will be the company’s fifth. The others are in Forest City, N.C.; Prineville, Ore.; Altoona, Iowa; and Lulea, Sweden.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Facebook likes Fort Worth for new data center in AllianceTexas."