Rodney Bowers from Minerva Works gave a presentation to the Industrial Development Authority Thursday about Bainbridge demographics for his company and procuring a building sight for a data center.

A data center is a remote location organizations use to store, process or distribute large amounts of data. Minerva Works plans to build one at the Decatur County Industrial Park.

Bowers began talking to IDA Executive Director Rick McCaskill back in August 2015 about bringing Minerva Works to Bainbridge. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed.

“It is a really important piece of infrastructure for us to have for our industrial prospects,” McCaskill said. “It’s highly unusual to have this in a rural area, so we were excited to put together a contract for them.”

Bowers sees this data center as being a statewide opportunity, with Bainbridge being the first location. Minerva wanted to target an area that can expand without having to charge millions of dollars to move the data elsewhere. Minerva Works believes that a data center in a community will draw businesses in because it isn’t something they see everyday.

Minerva Works also can be a footprint to a larger database such as Google or Facebook, companies that are trying to get their content to a community like Bainbridge. They believe they can build a technologically advanced skilled workplace and offer a service that is community integrated.

Bowers said they have been receiving requests for additional security from insurance companies, which they can provide through meshing together more than one data center. In the event Bainbridge suffered from a catastrophe, they could send the data to the other location and make sure it is safe. The data would be moved through an interconnected high-speed network, so people wouldn’t have to worry about it getting corrupted or destroyed.

Minerva sees Bainbridge as an untapped market in an underserved area. Archbold Medical was already a client of Minerva Works and when they made recommendations, they realized there was nowhere for Archbold to store its data near here. After looking at the 50-100 mile radius, Minerva Works realized there were many medical facilities that could benefit from this service, including Bainbridge Memorial Hospital and Manor.

“We think it’s going to be a profitable market,” Bowers said.

Minerva Works was looking for seven acres of land with access to highways and additional security, which is why the Industrial Park worked perfectly for them. Initial construction will be 20,000-square-feet with 10,000-square-feet molecular pods that can be added on.

“This is the perfect site for us,” Bowers said.

Minerva Works will receive no tax abatements. The only benefit from Decatur County was the land to build the data center on.