Sabey Eyes Expansion in Quincy, Wash.

Data center developer Sabey Corp. is looking to expand its presence in central Washington, and has discussed purchasing land from the Port of Quincy, a large industrial park that is also home to Microsoft's huge new data center. Sabey is already building a 100,000 square foot data center in Wenatchee.

The Port of Quincy is holding a meeting tonight to get public comment on whether it should sell land to Sabey. "They've made an inquiry and we're trying to schedule a joint meeting between the commissioners and the Sabey group," Port Commissioner Brian Kuest told the Columbia Basin Herald. "We're not far enough along in the inquiry process to know exactly what Sabey's needs are."

Sabey says it is evaluating properties in the area and interested in discussing land values with property owners. It hasn't made any commitments as yet, but Sabey has made no secret of its interest in the area. "We see North Central Washington as a very logical extension of our data center business," Senior Vice President of Real Estate John Sabey said last August, when Sabey announced its Intergate.Columbia project. "We're a long-time Northwest family and a long-time Northwest company, and we're looking to be a part of East Wenatchee and the greater Wenatchee area for a long time as well."

Additional development by Sabey would continue the influx of huge data centers in central Washington, including projects by Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com and Intuit in addition to Sabey.

The projects add up to more than 1.5 million square feet of data centers on 200-plus acres, according to Washington economic development officials, who say the region has become become "an example of how the world's most innovative companies are leveraging small-town America."

"The combination of fiber connectivity, network availability, low-cost power and a great team of community members made central Washington the right choice for Yahoo! to build our next state-of-the-art data centers," said Kevin Timmons, vice president of operations at Yahoo!. "Grant County offers the resources needed to continue to scale our infrastructure to provide the best Internet experience for our 500 million users."

"This is only the beginning," said Terry Brewer, Executive Director for the Grant County EDC. "As these data centers come online there are going to be lots of support businesses locating nearby. We are going to continue to see growth from this for years to come."