Meta building $800M data center in Rosemount, Minnesota

META proposal in Rosemount details emerge

Details on a large development in Rosemount so far known as "Project Bigfoot" have begun to come to the surface. FOX 9’s Rob Olson has the latest.

ROSEMOUNT, Minn. (FOX 9) - The parent company of Facebook is building a data center in Rosemount.

Officials announced on Thursday that the project to build a 715,000-square-foot data center in UMore Park is expected to cost $800 million and provide at least 100 operational jobs and 1,000 trade jobs during construction.

"We are extremely happy to make Minnesota and Rosemount our new home. We are committed to playing a positive role here and investing in the community's long-term vitality," said Brad Davis, director of data center community and economic development at Meta. "Rosemount stood out as an outstanding location for our newest data center thanks to its great access to infrastructure, deep pool of talent, and amazing community partners. Our thanks go to all of our partners that have helped get us here."

The land in question, UMore Park, spans nearly 5,000 acres in Dakota County. Once a federally-owned gunpowder manufacturing site during World War II, it has been owned by the University of Minnesota since the war. In 2015, the university approved the selling of the property in stages for development.

The Rosemount facility marks the 19th data center for Meta in the U.S. and the 23rd in the world. Once completed, the data center will be optimized for the company’s AI workload, according to a press release.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.