The University of Minnesota Board of Regents has approved a nearly $40 million land sale that could lead to a $700 million investment in Rosemount from Facebook’s parent company.
During Thursday’s Finance and Operations Committee meeting, the Board of Regents voted to approve the sale of a 280-acre parcel of UMore Park to Jimnist LLC, a subsidiary of Meta, to build a data center.
“It’s great for the university, it’s great for the state of Minnesota and it’s not often we get a $700 million investment from a company like Meta,” said Douglas Huebsch, co-vice chair of the Board of Regents during the meeting.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, would use the data center to store computing and networking equipment “for the purpose of collecting, storing, processing, distributing, or allowing access to large amounts of data,” according to a filing submitted to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The data center is expected to bring in 1,000 construction jobs and support at least 50 on-site jobs for the center’s operation, per the filing.
The company proposing the data center was a mystery until last week, when it was revealed that Meta was the parent company behind the major investment.
The funds from the $39.7 million sale will go to the UMore Park Legacy Fund, said Leslie Krueger, the university’s assistant vice president for planning, space and real estate.
The fund, which was established in 2009, was designed to make sure the proceeds from UMore Park go toward special education and outreach projects outside of the normal operations of the university, said Myron Frans, senior vice president for finance and operations.
The sale is expected to close by the end of January.