City of Mesa
In Mesa, Arizona, Apple is hoping that the third time's the charm for a massive 1.2-million square foot manufacturing facility.
The Apple-owned plant was previously used as a solar panel manufacturing facility, and then had a short-lived tenure as a location for GT Advanced Technology, an Apple supplier.
Now, Apple is planning to invest $2 billion to convert the plant into a "global command center," which will not only store iCloud backups and iTunes files, but will also provide oversight of other remote and co-located Apple data centers, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
But bad luck seems to follow the facility. Last summer, roof-mounted solar panels caught on fire, prompting 50 workers at the plant to evacuate.
Business Insider obtained photos from shortly after that incident, which shows just how massive the facility is, how much damage the solar panel fire actually caused, and just how much work Apple needs to do to turn it into a modern data center: