DC Blox has opened the first phase of its Birmingham, Alabama data center.

The 5MW facility is spread over 18,000 square feet of white space and has the ability withstand 150mph winds.

Steel mill conversion

DC Blox predicts a total investment of around $785 million in the facility over the next decade as well as expand capacity to 60MW and increasing the site's footprint to more than 200,000 sq ft.

The newly opened data center was originally the Ingalls Ironworks. Built in 1910, the steel works was one of the largest single-unit steel fabricators in the South at the time. After shutting down 30 years ago, the site was bought by the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority in 2005. Two years later, the building was a victim of an arson attack, prolonging potential investment from any interested buyers.

The site was then bought by DC Blox, the company announced its intentions to convert the facility into a data center last year. When we first reported the story, DC Blox called the Birmingham, Alabama facility an Edge data center, something the company has now dropped from marketing material.

Mark Masi, DC Blox chief operating office said: “With construction designed to withstand 150+ mph winds, N+1 power and cooling systems, a fully-protected private network and enhanced security developed to accommodate Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) standards, the Birmingham facility is designed for security and reliability.

“Our data hall is designed to accommodate cabinets of varying densities and can be adapted for custom solutions as well.”

DC Blox owns and operates data centers in Atlanta, Chattanooga and Huntsville – all linked by its own fiber optic network. The company has another 15 data centers planned in Southeastern markets in the US. DC Blox focuses on markets in this area that have a high population but that it believes are under-served by major data center operators.