Honda said Thursday it plans to construct a 60,000-square-foot data center in Longmont that could eventually employ up to 100 people.
The Japanese automaker has purchased 11 acres at the Boulder County Business Center at 1601 Dry Creek Drive.
The data center will initially employ 15 to 20 workers, but there’s a potential for expansion in the form of a natural-disaster backup site and research and development offices, said John Cody, president and CEO of the Longmont Area Economic Council.
He said Honda’s initial capital investment is expected to be $20 million.
Honda chose the Longmont site because the area isn’t prone to natural disasters and has competitive electric rates, said Cody.
“We started working with their brokers last September,” Cody said. “We didn’t give them anything special in the way of incentives.”
Honda is expected to break ground on the facility within the next several months, Cody said.
The news comes on the heels of Amgen Inc.’s June announcement that it will expand at its biotech facility in Longmont as it outgrows its Thousand Oaks, Calif., headquarters.
Santa Clara, Calif.,-based Sun Microsystems also said last month that it would relocate a radio-frequency identification center from Dallas to Longmont.
