HP wants to build $100 million data center here

Hewlett-Packard Co. is seeking city approval to build a $100 million data center at its northwest Colorado Springs campus even as the California-based technology giant prepares to close a customer support center here that employs 800.

The company filed its request April 14 to build a two-story, 251,521-square-foot data center adjacent to its three-building, 1.1 million-square-foot complex at 301 S. Rockrimmon Blvd. and said its plans include a "potential two-story addition to the north that would also be for data center use." Although the filing doesn't mention how many people the center would employ, the plans include 40 parking spaces for employees and vendors.

Data centers typically house hundreds of computer servers that operate everything from corporate Web sites to a company's internal computer network and programs. They often include backup facilities that could be needed to recover from a natural disaster. The centers use massive amounts of electrical power and typically include separate generators, batteries and electrical systems that provide backup electricity in case of a power failure.

HP officials did not respond to several telephone calls Friday seeking comment on when construction would begin, when the facility would open, how much the company plans to spend on the project, or how many people the center would employ.

Mike Kazmierski, chief executive of the Colorado Springs Regional Economic Development Corp., declined to comment on HP's plans.

James Mayerl, senior city planner, said he plans to approve the project, with minor conditions, by May 5, clearing the way for HP to obtain a building permit.

The project comes less than a year after HP told the 800 employees at its customer service center, on the same Rockrimmon Boulevard campus, that they will lose their jobs late this year unless they agree to move to Rio Rancho, N.M. The company began construction in January on a 218,000-square-foot customer support center in Rio Rancho that is scheduled to open in December and employ 1,350 people by 2013.

The Rio Rancho center, along with a similar center in Conway, Ark., is part of a plan to consolidate operations from 10 divisions into two centers. Construction on the 150,000-square-foot center in Arkansas, which eventually will employ 1,200, began in October and is set to open by year's end. Colorado Springs officials unsuccessfully bid for one of the centers, but Arkansas and New Mexico officials each offered incentives totaling more than $40 million.

HP has operated a 200-employee data center at the Rockrimmon Boulevard campus since 1994 that it rents to clients including DirecTV, which signed a seven-year contract in 2006 valued at $500 million to extend and expand its existing relationship with HP to handle its information technology, billing and customer data. HP also operates two smaller data centers, also at the Rockrimmon campus, that employ about 30 people.

The planned HP data center would be the fourth major data center opened or expanded in the Springs since 2006, including a 108,450-square-foot data center Verizon Wireless is building in a former semiconductor plant it acquired in December that will open in early 2010; a 113,400-square-foot data center FedEx Corp. moved from a smaller local facility in July; and a 175,000-square-foot data center Progressive Corp. opened in 2006.

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