Port Moving Forward On Water Infrastructure For Malaga Microsoft Data Center

The Chelan Douglas Port Authority is moving forward with more infrastructure upgrades in preparation for the major Microsoft data center complex coming to Malaga. 

The Port board has approved staff to solicit bids for the Malaga Waterline Extension project. 

Stacie de Mestre with the Port says design work for the project has been finalized. 

"Our design is complete," said de Mestre. "It includes an 18-inch watermain from Saturday Avenue to the former Lojo Orchard,” said de Mestre at the board’s Tuesday meeting. “It also includes a recirculation system to curb that stagnant water, since this isn’t a constant usage. It flows in the summer, and then in the winter usage will be very low. So, there is a system to keep the water flowing.” 

The Waterline Extension has been reviewed and approved by the Malaga Water District, according the Port. 

The project is identified in the Phase 1 Development and Reimbursement Agreement with Microsoft, which is building six cloud storage building in Malaga. 

The agreement has several deadlines. The Port has now met the timeline requiring for the request for bids to be issued no later than this Friday, as it will send them out Thursday.  

Meanwhile, a contract for construction now has to be issued no later than February 28. Construction of the Waterline Extension must be complete by January 1 of next year. 

A contract for most of the materials required has been awarded to Consolidated Supply for $765,000. Estimated engineering fees are $700,000.  

The Port has budgeted $5,269,471 for the entire project. The current engineer’s estimate for the construction costs is $2,300.000. 

Microsoft has agreed to reimburse the port for all of the construction costs, including any required water improvements to the Malaga system. 

The Microsoft cloud data center will support a range of services, such as the Teams videoconferencing program.