CNI Gets $50M for Oklahoma Data Center

County officials in Cleveland County, Oklahoma have approved a $50 million bond issue to fund the construction of a data center by Chickasaw Nations Industries (CNI), the economic development arm of the Chickasaw Nation. CNI plans to build a 150,000 square foot Tier III data center on its new corporate headquarters property in Norman.

CNI says it has Oklahoma University has agreed to sign a 15-year lease for half the facility if it can be completed by June 2009, according to the Norman Transcript. Local economic development officials said the facility will be a "hardened bunker" which is expected to be able to withstand an F-4 tornado, an important consideration in Oklahoma.

Chickasaw Nation Industries operates an IT services company, CNI Information Technology LLC. The company has "extensive" IT support contracts with federal agencies originally awarded to DataCom Sciences, which CNI acquired in 2003. CNI is projecting that its data center will create hundreds of jobs paying $70,000 a year.