eBay Building Computer Center in Daybreak

eBay Inc. and the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED) announced today that a “next-generation” data center will be developed in the Daybreak Commerce Park. This data center will support the many websites that Ebay Inc. currently runs including eBay.com, PayPal, Skype and shopping.com among others. This new facility is expected to generate approximately 50 jobs that will be compensated at an average of 150 percent of the Utah median wage.

eBay Inc. chose Daybreak because of the infrastructure (fiber-optic network, low cost of power). The GOED office also cited the highly qualified workforce that has developed in Utah as the result of many high-tech firms locating operations here.

The eBay facility is actually the second large computer operation to locate in the Daybreak Commerce Park, which sits on the northwest corner of Daybreak development. Oracle, a well-known business software developer, broke ground on its global information technology center in October.

The facility is expected to cost 334 million dollars to build. As with every building in Daybreak, the facility will feature new green technology. Considering the building will house literally thousands of power-sucking computers this will be important from a cost standpoint in addition to being a “environmentally friendly” company as well. These new green features will include a “water side economizer that uses outside air to cool water versus motorized chillers and variable speed drives to run fans and chillers on an on-demand basis. Additionally, rainwater will be used to supply the cooling tower and for landscape irrigation.” I take this as extremely good news as many companies have been cutting jobs to sustain their operations. A prime example of this is Kraftmaid Cabinetry who cut hundreds of jobs in the adjacent community of West Jordan.