October 25, 2013

Sen. Manchin thanks developers for confidence in W.Va. | Martinsburg Journal

MARTINSBURG - U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., thanked the developers of DC Corp during groundbreaking ceremonies Thursday for having confidence in West Virginia and the people of West Virginia.

"High tech is the future for West Virginia and the future for the country," Manchin said. "Our work force is a dedicated, committed, intelligent work force and without good employees, you won't be a success."

Charles "Chuck" Asbury II is the founder of DC Corp, which he describes as the first large-scale data center in West Virginia and the first Custom Hybrid Data Facility - a trademarked name - anywhere. DC Corp is moving into the former Ralph Lauren Childrenswear Distribution Center in the Rockefeller Science and Technology Center at the Eastern Regional Airport.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., gestures to the crowd Thursday at groundbreaking ceremonies for DC Corp’s new high-tech data center in the Rockefeller Science and Technology Center.

"No dream is too big, but you have to have a lot of faith," Manchin said before grabbing a shovel for the ceremonial turning of a spadeful of dirt.

DC Corp will offer disaster recovery, continuity of operations planning, cloud services and active primary hosting to its public- and private-sector clients.

"DC Corp vows to have a tremendous impact on the community," Asbury told the crowd gathered for the groundbreaking. "I want other high-tech IT companies to look to the Eastern Panhandle as the most sought-after area to do business. This is the beginning of much growth."

Asbury is from Gerrardstown. He graduated from Musselman High School and Shepherd University. He was president of Clear Solutions LLC, an information technology consulting firm, from 2005-10.

DC Corp was formed in 2011.

Asbury has a lease/purchase agreement with S. Schwab Co. of Cumberland, Md., for the 180,000-square-foot structure, including 11,000 square feet of office space.

The first phase of development will entail a $50 million investment. It will include remodeling 10,000 square feet of the cavernous warehouse to house an initial 50 employees and the installation of fiber optics infrastructure. The construction phase will employ 250-300 workers.

The company is starting with three clients. Asbury expects to be fully operational by the second quarter of 2014. As DC Corp's client list grows, more space will be remodeled and more staff will be hired. Asbury expects to employ several hundred when the facility is built out.

The building is about 13 years old. The Ralph Lauren Childrenswear facility closed in 2010, when the company's warehouse and distribution operations were consolidated at a facility in Greensboro, N.C.

Employment applications are being handled internally. Resumes are being accepted at jobs@dccorpwv.com.

"I am sincerely excited," said Rick Wachtel, chairman of the Eastern Regional Airport Authority, which operates the science and technology center. "The potential to draw similar industries is phenomenal. We're on the road back."


By:  John McVey