Indianapolis’ Emergency Operations Center anchors former dead mall turned data center

Indianapolis, IN – Midwest colocation provider Lifeline Data Centers has finalized a 25 year lease with the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (DPS) for 76,000 square feet of secure office space. Lifeline’s Eastgate campus, a 41 acre former shopping mall on the East side of Indianapolis, will house the Regional Emergency Operations Center and Regional Department of Homeland Security offices. Alex Carroll, Co-owner of Lifeline, said “We are pleased to be working with both city and federal authorities to provide secure office, data center, and telecom access on a long-term basis.”

Lifeline Data Centers owns and operates a secure outsourced data center complex on the grounds of a former shopping mall, the city’s first, built in 1958. Over 450,000 square feet are converted into secure office and related facilities. Lifeline co-owner Rich Banta said “The Emergency Operations Center lease marks the beginning of the second phase in Lifeline’s long-term strategy; retooling the remainder of the mall into a data center campus that includes large scale office space.”

The Indianapolis DPS selected Lifeline’s Eastgate complex for:
•Close proximity to three interstate highways, with ample parking
•Secure office space with high-uptime data center facilities and multiple telecom providers on a single campus
•Lifeline’s reputation and experience in building and maintaining mission critical data centers

Lifeline Data Centers purchased the 41 acre Eastgate retail shopping mall in 2008 and opened the first data center building in 2009. Currently, Lifeline operates 30,000 square feet of production data center floor space at the Eastgate campus. An additional 30,000 feet is available in the existing data center with ample space for new data center building construction.

The Department of Public Safety (DPS) protects the 850,000 citizens of Indianapolis. The DPS Regional Operations Center is part of an $18 million City of Indianapolis project to consolidate control and response into a single command center. This approach has been successful in Los Angeles, Chicago, Memphis, and other cities. With the US Department of Homeland Security regional office also housed in the same space, the operations center will extend reach to protect most of central Indiana.

Lifeline Data Centers is a “high tech landlord” that provides wholesale colocation (outsourced data center buildings) to companies that require highly reliable computer rooms. Lifeline’s clients include Fortune 1000 companies, health care networks, software companies, universities, city, and state governments.

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.