Return to Main News Page

eBay for Data Centers?

Carrier Hotels Staff Posted Mar 30, 2004

Print This Story

Do folks shop for potential mission-critical facilities on eBay? The owners of an unusual Washington State facility say that listing their property on the popular auction site has attracted some serious inquiries.

The eBay listing for the Titan Missile Complex near Moses Lake, Washington is an advertisement rather than an actual auction, and lists a price of $3.95 million. The property, part of a former Air Force site designed during the Cold War to withstand a direct nuclear strike, is being marketed as a possible disaster recovery site for companies seeking secure data storage. (NOTE: The site is different from the nearby Titan I LLC facility,which was bought by several former Microsoft executives in 2002 and is now a working data center).

The Moses Lake site includes three missile silos, each more than 150 feet deep. A number of such bunker-style underground properties marketed as "ultrasecure" disaster recovery space in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the expected flood of business continuity tenants never quite materialized.

The Titan property is still being marketed as a potential data storage site, but also positioned for alternate uses including an "Ultra Secure, Ultra Private, Personal/Corporate Retreat" or as a youth summer camp or even a winery ("Plant Vineyard above, Store Vintage below").

Is it working? The eBay counter on the site shows 279,000 hits. Bari Hotchkiss, who is listed as the contact, told a Seattle paper that the ad has led to more than a dozen "serious inquiries." But do these potential buyers have $3.95 million in their PayPal account?