Facility finally gets new business license after previous one expired in 2006
An existing data center in Reno, Nevada, was granted a new business license to operate after going without one for nearly 20 years.
As reported by the Reno Gazette Journal, Lumen was granted a conditional use permit for the site after the city’s planning commission voted unanimously to approve the request at a meeting last week.
The 5,925 sq ft (550 sqm) building, on a 0.28-acre site at 220 Gardner Street, was set up in 1999 by Williams Telecommunications as a telecommunications facility. Lumen Technologies took over the 2MW building in 2017, and the previous license was left to expire as "an oversight during acquisition and reorganization."
“It was recently discovered that the facility has not maintained an active business license since 2006,” city documents note. “This oversight came to light during a review of data centers in Reno by the Business Licensing Division. Lumen Technologies believed the facility was licensed under its existing utility license.”
The request was to allow an existing data center to continue to operate, as there had not been an active business license since 2006. A Conditional Use Permit (CUP) was required to legally establish the data center use at the site. City staff had recommended approval.
A Special Use Permit was previously approved to allow for a 10,000 sq ft (929 sqm) expansion to the existing facility around 2001, but the extension was never constructed. According to the recent application, Lumen has no plans for additional growth and no plans to install another generator at the facility. Should the site be expanded, an amendment to the newly-granted CUP will be required.
American energy company Williams built two fiber networks in the US, using its decommissioned pipelines in the early 1990s. The first was sold in 1995 to LDDS, which would become WorldCom and then MCI. The second was spun off in 2001 as Williams Communications, filed for bankruptcy the following year; it later adopted the name WilTel Communications, and was acquired by Level 3 Communications around 2005. In 2017, Level 3 merged with CenturyLink, which changed its name to Lumen in 2020.
Source: datacenterdynamics
