![\"HostDime](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tgs-l-hostdime0099.jpg\")
HostDime data center under construction along I-4 in Maitland, on Monday, October 16, 2023.\n(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Eatonville\u2019s town council, still hopeful HostDime will open its massive data center on the east side of Interstate 4\u00a0 this month or next, shelved \u2014 for now \u2014 a plan to double the daily fines it assesses the company for each day its project is unfinished.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people are calling it the \u2018I-4 Eyesore Part II,\u2019 \u201d quipped Eatonville Mayor Ruthi Critton, referencing the derisive nickname given to a skyscraper up the road in Altamonte Springs that more than two decades later is still not complete.<\/p>\n
But Manny Vivar, founder and CEO of HostDime, told the Orlando Sentinel the company was scheduling final inspections of the seven-story, uniquely shaped data center for the last week of September. \u201cSo yeah, we\u2019ll be open October at the latest.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new building also will serve as the global headquarters for HostDime\u2019s corporate staff.<\/p>\n
Eatonville leaders long have hoped the project, on land cleaved from what had been the campus of the Robert Hungerford Preparatory High School, would boost the town\u2019s limited tax base. It is also expected to add as many as 100 jobs in the long term.<\/p>\n
But construction has been plagued by delays since the company purchased the property fronting Wymore Road in 2016.<\/p>\n
Vivar said the journey has been \u201clong and painful\u201d with post-pandemic, supply-chain challenges, infrastructure hurdles and more public scrutiny, all of which have added years to the construction schedule and millions to the project\u2019s cost.<\/p>\n
At a ground-breaking in 2021, he had estimated the cost at $35 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy,\u201d Vivar said.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re now probably close to $20 million over that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A developer\u2019s agreement with the town, amended after COVID, targeted June 2024 as the opening date.<\/p>\n
The town then agreed to a company request for an extension to April 19, 2025, for \u201csubstantial completion\u201d and an \u201coperations commencement\u201d date of July 31, 2025, which requires a certificate of occupancy. At the same time, the agreement was tweaked so that the town could tack on a $250-a-day penalty for each day after that July 2025 date that there was no certificate of occupancy for HostDime\u2019s building.<\/p>\n
Friday will mark 400 days past.<\/p>\n
HostDime data center under construction along I-4 in Maitland, on Monday, October 16, 2023.
\n(Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
The bill totaled $99,250 when council met Tuesday to consider possibly raising the fine to $500 a day.<\/p>\n
Council members did not vote on the matter because Vivar was not present.<\/p>\n
In August, Vivar appeared in front of town council to update the board and field questions.<\/p>\n
At that meeting, council member Tarus Mack said he was disappointed to learn Vivar was breaking a promise to provide free WiFi to every Eatonville household, a pledge he made at the ground-breaking and repeated over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know things change, and I know you\u2019ve been dealing with a lot with this particular project,\u201d Mack said in frustration. \u201cI\u2019m trying to choose my words wisely, but if you say you\u2019re going to do something, I think you need to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vivar said HostDime\u2019s goal now is to make free WiFi available for public connectivity from an antennae atop its building, but constructing the residential infrastructure for every household to connect to the Internet for free was \u201cnot sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pointed out the pledge was never a requirement in the developers agreement.<\/p>\n
Critton, elected mayor in March, said she is sympathetic to council frustrations but also HostDime\u2019s challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s very eager to see the final product. I\u2019m eager, too. I\u2019m like, \u2018Manny, are we there yet?’\u201d she said. \u201cI want to give Manny some credit and the benefit of the doubt that if COVID doesn\u2019t interfere he\u2019s up and running right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, it would behoove us to work with them, extend some grace,\u201d Critton said.<\/p>\n
HostDime, which owns and operates data centers in Los Angeles, Brazil, Colombia, India, Mexico and the United Kingdom, also has operated for many years a smaller data center on West Kennedy Boulevard, west of Interstate 4.<\/p>\n
Vivar predicted three years ago the new center \u201cwill be the backbone of digital infrastructure\u201d in Central Florida.<\/p>\n
A data center is a physical facility that houses rows of computers and networking equipment used for storing, processing and transmitting massive amounts of data. The rise of artificial intelligence has created an exponential demand for data centers.<\/p>\n
According to the Pew Research Center, which cited figures published this year by DataCenterMap.Com, an industry resource, more than 3,000 data centers are operating in the U.S. with another 1,500 in various stages of development.<\/p>\n
Florida has 128 working or in development, including HostDime\u2019s new center in Eatonville.<\/p>\n