Former Lucent plant to get new use
Orphaned industrial plant gets a new high-tech task
Oklahoman
By Jim Stafford
Business Writer
A new high-tech mission has emerged for the former Lucent Technologies plant in far western Oklahoma City.
The 1.8-million-square-foot facility has gained new life as OKCWorks, a giant data center capable of serving "mission critical” computing needs for scores of client companies worldwide, developer Terryl Zerby said.
Zerby and partner Ron Ward were the lead investors in a group that paid $14 million for the property in 2004.
Then they had to find a new role for the vacant landmark property, where nearly 10,000 people once worked making what was then state-of-the-art telephone switching equipment.
"We knew it had potential for manufacturing, distribution and certainly some sort of office use,” Zerby said this week as he provided a tour of the massive — and still empty — space that sits on about 250 acres.
"It wasn't but a year after ownership that we began to hear from other developers asking about the power capabilities,” Zerby said. "We realized there is an OG&E substation on site. This facility has two power generation sources. That is a key component of data centers.”
Buzzing with potential
Suddenly, the owners saw potential for the plant that opened in the early 1960s as a manufacturing site for what was then known as Western Electric.
The site would be ideal for a new high-tech role in an age when computing power has become a critical element to businesses worldwide.
"Soon after that we became acquainted with Tom Freeman and his group and began to explore further the capability of the facility as a large data center operation, or a combination,” Zerby said. "We began talking about the potential of subdividing the facility.”
Freeman and his Dallas-based company property management firm, Jones Lang LaSalle, saw so much potential in the property that it began acting as a leasing agent after bringing a couple of clients up to tour the site. Freeman is managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle's Critical Environment Solutions division, usually acting as an agent for companies seeking data center space.
Austin, Texas-based design and engineering firm Page Southerland Page was hired to help develop a master plan for the site.
What emerged are five distinct buildings known as OKC10 through OKC50. The concept of a data center "pod system” was developed that offers anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 square feet of space.
"There are a lot of expansion capabilities here,” Freeman said. "Every corporation we've dealt with, they would like to have only what they need today, but they don't want to be boxed in two years from now. The amount of square footage here is the only place I know of in the United States that could satisfy that objection.”
Key to the new data center is redundant power and communications and affordable power costs, which Freeman said was in the neighborhood of 4 cents per kilowatt hour. OG&E has an on-site substation.
"Power is probably the main driver,” Freeman said. "Here the power is expandable as far out as you can see.”
What type of clients could use the site?
So, who are the former plant's potential clients?
Most of Jones Lang LaSalle's clients prefer to remain anonymous, but it does work with software giant Microsoft, which has enormous computing needs, Freeman said. The company also manages all of Bank of America's data centers, he said.
Companies with large data needs are looking to relocate their computer servers away from crowded, high-cost urban areas. Google bought 600 acres at the Mid America Industrial Park in Pryor last year on which it is building its own massive data center.
OKCWorks' Oklahoma location also is desirable because the state is one of the few that offers tax breaks for companies that invest in data center equipment, Freeman said.
Opening within a couple weeks is the first 15,000-square-foot data center known as RACK59, Zerby said. New raised flooring and server racks already have been installed in what once served as a data center for the former Lucent Technologies.
Developers confident right role found for plant
Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, said economic development officials are pleased to see the old manufacturing plant has come "full circle” in its new role.
"We have seen that there is a growing demand for that kind of computer farm, or whatever the current terminology is,” Williams said. "Terryl has moved that whole plan forward, and it really is good to see that, hopefully, it will end up being a true high tech facility as it was originally planned and originally made.”
Zerby and Ward are confident they have found the right role for the former manufacturing workhorse.
The plant's new owners took their time to assess what they had bought and what assets the site offered.
"Our task was to find that highest, best use that could appreciate the assets,” Zerby said. "Unquestionably it is as a mission critical/data center.”
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