Another data center company is bringing its business to Allen.
Compass Datacenters will add an 87,000-square-foot building to a 12-acre site just north of Allen Premium Outlets, off US 75.
The project will receive a 50% City tax abatement for ten years, as long as the company meets benchmark levels of employment and taxable values. Even with the abatement, Allen expects to collect $8.2 million in tax revenue during the data center’s first ten years of operation.
“Data centers bring a lot of taxable value to our community without putting a burden on our schools or on our utilities,” said Dan Bowman, CEO of the Allen Economic Development Corporation. “It’s something that we have sought as a city, starting with the Cisco data center five or six years ago.”
Due to the project’s unique features, city council members voted to rezone the property to a planned development during the Oct. 25 council meeting. Several regulations, including those pertaining to on-site electricity generation, were specifically tailored to a data center use.
“We have developed all over the country. The entire process [in Allen] has been the best I’ve ever been exposed to,” said Compass Datacenters co-founder and senior vice president Chris Curtis. “The standards were stringent and robust and definitely protect the community. But the members of the staff and the team you have here is, without question, the best I’ve seen.”