Another Data Center for Birmingham, Alabama

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama plans to invest $55 million to build a new data center in Birmingham, according to local media. The new facility is the third significant data center project announced this month in Birmingham, the largest city in Alabama with a population of approximately 250,000.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans to buy 25 acres in Jefferson Metropolitan Park Lakeshore, a deal that was authorized by the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority board of directors. The company plans to build a 55,000-square-foot center in Birmingham's Oxmoor Valley, with plans to occupy the building in 2010.

Birmingham is one of the most affordable markets in the U.S> to operate a data center, according to a recent study by The Boyd Company, which found that it costs approximately $12.6 million in total operating costs to locate a data center facility in Birmingham, placing it 11th on the list of most affordable markets.

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield announcement follows two Birmingham data center projects announced earlier this month:

Birmingham's largest data center tenant is Wachovia Corp., which built a $400 million data center in Jefferson Metropolitan Park in 2006.