02-09-2011 Data center to launch at Ignition Park

Home Browse Search

Office of the Mayor NEWS RELEASE February 9, 2011 10 a.m. Data center to launch at Ignition Park st Innovation Park’s Data Realty will build 1 private facility Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-1564 or Jeff Gibney, Executive Director of Community and Economic Development, 235-9371 Mayor Stephen J. Luecke today said the City of South Bend has reached an agreement to sell land in Ignition Park to a private company that will build a nearly 50,000-square-foot data center – the first private, high-tech business in the technology park. Data Realty, a startup company based at Innovation Park at Notre Dame, will break ground this spring for a Tier III data center serving small to mid-sized businesses in South Bend and throughout the Midwest. Construction may take about 14 months. The data center will be built at Ignition Park’s eastern end on a 4.94-acre site (along Franklin Street between Garst and Stull streets), immediately northwest of the Transpo facility. Data Realty’s site will accommodate a future 40,000-square-foot addition. The data center is being developed under the auspices of Graham Allen Partners LLC, a private holding company established to make investments in early-stage, high-growth businesses. Like Data Realty, Graham Allen Partners is based at Innovation Park, which with Ignition Park forms South Bend’s dual-site, state-certified technology park. “I am excited to welcome Data Realty as the first Innovation Park client to ‘graduate’ to Ignition Park. On land where once Studebaker automobiles were made, Data Realty will manage and analyze data to help businesses succeed in a competitive global environment,” Luecke said. “Besides demonstrating a potential future flow of prospective businesses from Innovation Park, Data Realty exemplifies the kind of high-tech ventures we expect to locate at Ignition Park. “South Bend’s future has begun at Ignition Park,” Luecke added.