Colocation firm Involta announced on Monday that it plans to build a 20,000 square foot data center in Duluth, Minnesota.
Though the company says it is still waiting for final approvals from local agencies, it has started to design the facility.
According to the press release, the building will be LEED certified and is expected to cost Involta $10.5 million to complete.
The data center will have 10,000 square feet of conditioned data center space that will use the cooler climate of Duluth, according to Involta.
Involta says the facility will be suited to healthcare organizations, businesses, government and educational institutions.
"The ability to share the substantial costs of housing and managing mission critical systems and the option of off-site data storage for disaster preparedness planning is becoming increasingly important to businesses," Bruce Lehrman, chief executive officer, Involta said in a statement. "Building and maintaining a separate, stand-alone data center is very costly. By colocating, businesses can realize the advantages of an advanced data center while actually cutting costs. Use of this data center will allow business leaders to focus on their core businesses rather than complex infrastructure and facilities issues."
According to Involta, the data center should be fully operational by the third quarter of 2012.
Involta says multiple anchor tenants have already leased space in the facility including Essentia Health and SISU.
Last year, Involta raised $8 million in equity financing to fund its Akron, Ohio facility.