It also owns a Radio Shack store in Geneseo

Davenport's loss has turned out to be Bettendorf's gain with the opening of ColoHub, a data storage center that occupies a former Eagle Country Market in Bettendorf.

Geneseo Communication Services president and chief executive officer Scott Rubins said his company initially wanted to build in the former Wonder Bread plant on Davenport's River Drive after the distribution operations in the former bakery ended in 2010.

When that deal could not be finalized, the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce and Bettendorf city officials worked diligently to help the company find an alternative site in the vacant 56,000-square-foot grocery store at 2701 Devils Glen Road.

"The city and the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce were trying to keep me in this area," Rubins said. "We could have put this building anywhere in the world. But they tried to keep us here."

Bill Martin, the chamber's senior vice president of economic development, said the project had a very specific list of criteria from the building size and construction, the ability to acquire the site, remodeling costs, and access to reliable electricity and fiber optic cable.

"I don't think there were probably a lot of options for this," said Martin, who was not on staff when the chamber began working with Geneseo Communications in January 2011. "The major concern when the first building didn't work out was that we keep him in the region. We were glad we had another facility that would work for him."

The Bettendorf City Council had to rezone the property before Geneseo Communications could invest the $15 million necessary to convert the store into a data storage center. The project, representing a total investment of $18 million, also received a $436,800 tax credit from the state of Iowa, a $160,000 tax increment financing rebate — payable over 10 years — from the city, and a $96,000 part loan/part grant from the state.

The company's investment involved the acquisition of the building from Hy-Vee, which purchased it after Eagle went bankrupt, as well as renovation, infrastructure, computers and other equipment. The company also put in its own fiber optic cable in conduit owned by the city to connect the data center to a fiber optic network that runs between Chicago and Denver.

Rubins said the facility "houses computers and Cheap Dedicated Server for other companies to connect to one another. It is more of a warehouse."

"There are not a whole lot of people in the facility," he said. "We provide the power. We provide the security, armed guards, and the high-speed data fiber optics."

The operation will create fewer than 10 jobs for Geneseo Communications, which employs about 80 across the company, Rubins said.

Rubins said many companies that sell items online will seek additional facility space with the right equipment where they can lease and use that network to enlarge their capacity.

"The cloud is growing and they need more space to house these servers," he said. "We are open for business. We have three clients that have committed to moving within the next 90 days."

He said he has given tours to many potential clients, including a company that sent representatives from India to see the facility.

According to Martin, the project has an economic impact of $2.08 million in direct payroll. It also will lead to another 17 jobs that will be created as a result of the development's multiplier effect. The total economic impact is $18.17 million.

ColoHub opened July 15 and will have an official grand opening Thursday. The building was renovated by Alsip, Ill.-based MDI Access, which specializes in design build data centers.

This is the second such data center Rubins' Geneseo company owns: the other is in Chicago. The parent company is more than 100 years old and offers multiple businesses, including land-line phones and broadband to Henry County and also long-haul fiber optics cable. It also owns a Radio Shack store in Geneseo.

"I think this project does a lot of  things for us," the chamber's Martin said. "It will provide an opportunity for companies in the Quad-City region to host their server farms and be right on the high-speed fiber optics network. It's a good advantage for local companies to have."

Steve Van Dyke, Bettendorf's economic development director, said the city also benefits from all the fiber optics that Geneseo Communications pushed, or installed, into the city's conduit.

"If a business needs a dedicated line or two of fiber they now have the ability to get that. Before people would use the same fiber," he said, adding that a single fiber can hold a tremendous amount of data. "But with more fiber in the conduit, people can lease their own."

Although the center is expected to employ about 10 Geneseo Communications workers, the facility will have other IT workers employed by the clients. "They're high-tech jobs," Martin said.
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