King County Plans $21M Lease in Tukwila

The county executive of King County, Washington has proposed spending $21 million to lease data center space in Tukwila, a Seattle suburb that is home to many existing data centers. The King County Council had previously considered buying and upgrading a building at 1130 Rainier Avenue in downtown Seattle, but ultimately dropped those plans in favor of the Tukwila lease. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a story that reviews the debate about the county's decisions on its data center requirements.

The 1130 Rainier site, which was once the headquarters of digital music company Loudeye, would have housed the county's elections equipment in addition to the data center. The county opted to lease space in Renton for the elections office, and seek separate digs for its data center. Critics say that splitting the data center and elections office requirements will be $15 million more than the estimated cost of buying and retrofitting the Seattle site, but some council members say the estimate for a rehab of 1130 Rainier may be on the low side.