US Signal to open Van Buren Township data center in early March
US Signal, a Grand Rapids-based IT consulting firm and data center operator, plans to open its fourth Michigan data center in Van Buren Township in the first week of March, the company announced this week.
Announced in late 2018, the facility will open with 25,000 square feet of data center floor space and can expand up to 100,000 square feet, said Dave Wisz, executive vice president of operations at US Signal. The company expects that build-out to last between four and seven years, depending on client needs and demand.
The development is on 8.3 acres along Haggerty Road, just north of Tyler Road and west of I-275. The facility will have one dedicated employee and several of the company’s operations and facilities workers will also work at the new building.
US Signal’s Van Buren Township location makes for the 48th co-located data center in Michigan, according to Data Center Mapping. US Signal operates one other data center in Southeast Michigan, in Southfield, along with two in the Grand Rapids area.
The co-located data center industry is projected to grow 14 percent between 2019 and 2024 and hit $90 billion in total revenue, according to research released last year from Global Market Insights Inc.
US Signal executives declined to disclose an investment figure for the new facility, citing the company’s private standing, but called it “quite a large capital outlay.”
“There is not a data center that will be on par with this facility in Southeastern Michigan,” Wisz said “Based on the redundancy, the resiliency, the integrity and the fact that it was built from the ground up with the full intention that it be built towards or above tier 3 data center standards.”
US Signal’s need for a second data center facility in metro Detroit was driven in part by tenant client demands seeking “a third-party data center as part of their … digital transformation journey,” said Amanda Regnerus, executive vice president of products and services at US Signal.
Additionally, Regnerus cited a recent report the company released that found location was a top priority for clients, with 91 percent of respondents seeking a data center provider that is close to their users.
“A lot of customers are looking for third-party data centers to meet their compliance requirements,” Regnerus said. “And generally, there’s a 200-mile radius to satisfy (client’s) compliance requirements.
Posted By: Crain’s Detroit Business on February 18, 2020.
