Switch’s plan for new $772 million data center will boost investment in Bartow

November 03, 2023

By: John Druckenmiller

A $772 million data center identified as a “north campus” for an even larger complex in Douglas County is planned near LakePoint in southern Bartow County.

Switch KEEP 2.0 Atlanta North Campus, as planned, would boost the announced investment in Bartow to nearly $8.5 billion in roughly nine months, following the battery plant off U.S. 411 and solar panel complex off I-75.

The company has identified 126 acres south of the intersection of Old Alabama Road and Bates Road, stretching to the Paulding County line. It is due west of LakePoint and adjoins the Carters Grove area.

The scope of the project is just as interesting. Rather than square footage, the description lists the size as 1,620 feet in length — that’s almost five-and-a-half football fields.

A development of regional impact statement filed with the state shows the complex will start with “a single data center” accompanied by “associated driveways, detention ponds, and an electrical substation.” More aptly put, it will be home to an incredible number of computers providing backend support to Internet services including streaming.

As planned, the initial phase would be finished by summer 2026 with a total buildout projected for 2046. Annual tax contributions are estimated at $15 millino.

We have calls into the company for additional background.

The Bartow site is a sequel to what was labeled as a $2.5 billion investment in Douglas County in 2017. That campus is off Camp Creek Parkway south of I-20 and west of 285, a popular alternate path to the international airport from Northwest Georgia.

In May of that year, then-Gov. Nathan Deal said the company initially would create 65 jobs with the million-plus-square-foot data center, one of several around the country.

The concept, according to the state media release: The Keep campus will offer clients the ability to operate in multiple Tier IV Gold data center environments across the east coast while remaining outside of natural disaster zones.

Based in Las Vegas and founded in 2000, Switch identifies itself as “built on the intelligent and sustainable growth of the Internet. Its founder and chief executive officer, Rob Roy, developed more than 700 issued and pending patent claims covering data center designs that manifested into their world-renowned data centers and their technology solution ecosystems.”