New data center coming to Virginia Beach

The Virginia Beach Development Authority has approved the sale of a 3.5-acre site in Corporate Landing to Telefónica International Wholesale Services USA Inc. for a data center.

Telefónica paid $735,000 for the land and plans to build a 20,000-square-foot to 23,000-square-foot data center that will house the first transoceanic fiber cable station in the mid-Atlantic.

According to the city, fiber cables will connect Brazil to North America at the installation planned in Virginia Beach.

Transoceanic cables receive and transmit signals at regular intervals to avoid distortion and data loss. There are dozens of fiber lines in the ocean, and the data center is expected be a significant boost for speed and data transmission for the Hampton Roads region and beyond.

“This project significantly advances Virginia Beach’s potential for future projects of this kind,” Virginia Beach Economic Development Director Warren D. Harris said in a statement.  “These companies cluster, and we plan to leverage the Telefónica announcement to bring more data centers to the city. Additionally, we anticipate even more interest because the stronger telecom infrastructure will have great appeal to businesses that require big data.”

Virginia Beach began its technology infrastructure improvement program in 2015 to improve services to residents by interconnecting government facilities with their own fiber optic network, while looking for opportunities to leverage the additional capacity for economic development.

Telefónica, based in Madrid, Spain, is one of the ten largest telecommunications companies in the world, with more than 320 million clients. It has a presence in 21 nations, including Spain, and countries in Europe and Latin America.