@Lightspeed Opens $70-Mil Facility

DENVER-One of the nation’s largest data storage centers opened its doors here. A company called @Lightspeed opened a 225,000-sf, $70-million facility at East 43rd Avenue and Brighton Boulevard, near the Denver Coliseum. The company was co-founded by former football players Charles Johnson and Alfred Williams.

Johnson, the company’s chief executive officer, helped lead the University of Colorado to a national football championship in 1990. Williams is a former Denver Bronco.

The facility, built by Haselden Construction of Denver, sits in a former Firestone manufacturing plant. The operation provides services such as Web hosting, data storage, disaster recovery and high-speed connections to the fiber-optic backbones of telecommunication giants such as Qwest, Level 3 and AT&T. Initially, 12 customers leased 30,000 sf of the space.

The company focuses on providing outsource services to large, enterprise companies. It expects many of its clients to be Fortune 500 companies. Unlike other companies that might offer 10 or 20 facilities, @Lightspeed decided to build one giant facility.

The building is located in an enterprise zone, which allows it to qualify for up to nine state tax credits. One of them is a 3% investment tax credit and job creation credit.