The search is widening for tenants to fill Washington’s overbuilt data center. Efforts to lease the 26,000 square feet of highly-secure warehouse space to the private sector have so far been unsuccessful.
To take a tour, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. So let’s just say you pass through a lot of secure doors.
Rob St. John oversees the state data center. He described it as “very warehouse-like.”
Picture an unfinished space about the size of an indoor soccer arena with 20-foot ceilings and a concrete floor. Washington built four of these data center halls. But now it only needs two of them — servers are getting smaller.
“We’re open to almost any sort of alternate use,” St. John said.
Even something out of a spy thriller. Michael Cockrill, Washington’s chief information officer, suggested a SCIF, or Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. It’s a safe room where classified documents can be handled, stored and discussed.
“It’s mostly military,” Cockrill said. “There’s also a growing need for secret and top secret information just in the private sector.”
Bottom line: The state still hopes this space is a diamond in the rough, not a white elephant.
