Following the recommendation of the Director of Community Economic Development, Alan Mason, Revelstoke City Council has agreed to endorse the application of Citation Networks to have land removed from the Crown for a new high tech park in Revelstoke.

The high tech park was pitched by Robert Sharkey, CEO of Citation Networks, at a public hearing several weeks ago, where it achieved unanimous approval by all 37 people who attended. The park, which would be located on Westside Rd, could provide up to 300 white collar IT jobs and attract a new demographic to the area. The bootstrap resident for the proposed technology park would be a 450,000sq/ft datacenter with the aledged business backing from the likes of IBM, and Microsoft.

The reasons for building such a facility in Revelstoke may not seem immediately obvious, but dig deeper and the reasoning becomes clear:

1. Two hydro dams within 100km to provide cheap reliable green power
2. All four transnational fiber optic lines run along side Highway #1 directly through Revelstoke
3. Land for the datacenter is located on the Columbia River which could provide ample cooling
4. The temperature profile of Revelstoke means little need for A/C most of the year
5. As if all of that wasn’t enough, there is of course the world renown Revelstoke lifestyle.

With similar projects already completed along the Columbia River in Wenatchee (WA),  Quincy (WA) and most recently, the Dalles (WA),  it seems only logical that the quest for cheap power, fat pipes, and cool weather would bring development of such facilities to this area.

Expect to hear more on this as I hear about it.

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