LAUDERDALE COUNTY, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Compass Datacenters campus took place Tuesday at 3:30 pm.
Compass Datacenters was developed in 2011 and representatives with the company say they believe in four convictions: Humility, Actions and Words, Asking Why, Continuous Improvement.
The site is located along I-20 / 59 next to Southern Pipe & Supply Central Distribution Center.
This is a $10 billion investment that will bring thousands of jobs to the area over the next 8 years as crews work to construct 8 different buildings.
So, what exactly is a data center?
“A data center is where all of your apps live. It’s where all the services you access online live. It’s where your email lives, your photos, your videos, you know, all of your streaming services, entertainment, so we’re really connected to data centers from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed, for many of us. Data centers make the digital economy possible,” said Katy Hancock, VP of Public Relations with Compass.
New jobs coming to Lauderdale County is a great thing, but how many long-term positions will this project create?
“Unlike some single building datacenters that maybe only have like 30 people working there. Really entire industries build around these datacenters because of the scale at which we build. So, it’s hard to say with certainty the exact number of people that will be working here day in and day out, but it’s on the border of hundreds. Then of course, the hotels, the restaurants, pest control, grounds keeping, all of the services that are impacted around us are maybe more meaningful because of the scale at which we build,” said Hancock.
What type of jobs can we expect the facility to include?
“Datacenter operators, multi-skilled operators, IT jobs, electricians, technicians, HVAC. I mean, these are all really important careers right now and report huge opportunities for people looking to explore new careers,” said Hancock.
Powering a facility of this magnitude isn’t easy, but Mississippi Power President and CEO Anthony Wilson said his company is more than capable.
“Data centers are capacity intensive. So, they need a lot of power. You know, they can be all different sizes, but this one happens to be about a 500 megawatt site. That’s the equivalent of about 500 super Walmarts in one location,” said Wilson. “These are very large energy consumers, but at Mississippi Power, we are constantly engineering and looking ahead to see what the next demands are going to be on our electric system, and we’re constantly putting that in place. So, after we supply this particular customer, as big as it is, we’re ready to supply the very next customer.”
Lauderdale County District 3 Supervisor Josh Todd said this project has been in the making for the past 2 years.
“This does not happen over night. We had a great partner in Mississippi Power. Got Compass in here and did all the leg work really, and then along with the EMBDC, It just sort of made everything come together,” said Todd.
State leaders said planning years in advance is the key to brining even more industry to our area.
“The reason that this particular project chose this site, is because of the capital investments that have been made by the Mississippi Legislature, by the State of Mississippi, by the Mississippi Development Authority, by the county of Lauderdale County. It’s these investments, having this site here at the I-20 / I-59 corridor ready for a project of this size and this magnitude,” said Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves.
The Compass Datacenters project is expected to bring huge profits to the local economy, but with all that money, comes a lot of responsibility.
“Obviously the biggest aspect of this $10 billion dollar capital investment is going to be huge amounts of monies to our local governing authorities. I’m hopeful that they are responsible with those dollars, and particularly re-invest so that we can win the next major economic development project,” said Reeves.
