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Joined together for the Facebook”Thumbs Up”; Tom Furlong, Vice President of Site Operations for Facebook; NC Deputy Commerce Secretary Dale Carroll; NC Sen. Wes Westmoreland; former NC Senator Debbie Clary; NC Sen. Ralph Hise; Rutherford County Commi
Building 1 of Forest City’s Facebook project broke ground in November, 2010. It is now complete. Building 2 construction began in the fall of 2011. It’s completion is expected later this year. Hundreds of thousands of servers programed in this facility will help connect Facebook’s more than 845 million users around the world.
Tom Furlong, Vice President of Site Operations said it best: “Our Forest City date center is among the most advanced and most energy efficient facility of its kind. It is an amazing accomplishment, and wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t worked so very well together.” He and Governor Purdue both echoed the sentiment that “We are proud that Facebook chose to make North Carolina a ‘friend’. It also helps confirm North Carolina’s distinction as a global business destination.”
That statement is already confirmed by The Horsehead Corporation choosing Rutherford County over a 100 other locations for its’ new plant.
An interesting fact which anyone can brag about is that more than 1,500 people have spent 1.2 million working hours on the data center project thus far. Most of those are people from Rutherford County and surrounding areas. Presently more than 60 people are employed within the facility. An average of 600 construction workers are on site everyday. Other jobs include groundkeepers and maintenance personnel.
Facebook has also distributed thousands of dollars in grants to Rutherford County non-profits. Facebook is very committed to direct and indirect benefits as a community partner. One example is its’ key role in developing the first Rutherford County Science and Tech Expo at Isothermal Community College.
Rutherford County government and the state of North Carolina reaches out to any and all who would like to bring their businesses here. This attitude is definitely proven very successful. Aren’t you glad you live in Rutherford County? Our future is looking great!
