Facebook: Meta confirms $700m Minnesota data center venture

Social network Meta is supporting a new Minneapolis data center project. Late last week, a Minnesota Public Utilities Commission document confirmed Meta's $700 million Minneapolis data center project. Xcel Energy announced an 'enterprise data center' project with a Fortune 100 company in November 2022. The energy firm stated the ‘Amber Kestral’ project would start with 10MW and grow to 75MW in its first ten years.

Xcel claimed the unnamed corporation was also considering alternative data center locations, including Becker, north of Minneapolis, near the Sherburne County Generating Station. Meta appears to have relocated its campus. Meta wants to buy 280 acres of UMore Park property close to Dakota County Technical College for $40 million, according to a University of Minnesota board agenda this week. The board will approve the deal this week.

The Rosemount property is surrounded by County Road 42 to the north, Dakota County Technical College to the west, and Blaine Avenue to the east. Rosemount recently rezoned the undeveloped area from agricultural use to commercial park planned unit development, according to the board.

Meta-owned Delaware LLC Jimnist LLC bought the land. The closing deadline is January 29, 2024, or earlier. Jimnist will be “solely responsible” for all infrastructure and utilities on the site, except for relocating the University's water main in the southwest corner. The 4,772-acre UMore Park was an armaments facility. The Rosemount Planning Commission called the park's campus concept “Project Bigfoot” and proposed five single-story buildings, two of which would be "main buildings." Xcel will build a substation there.