Social media giant Facebook plans to build a $750 million data center in Huntsville, Gov. Kay Ivey announced Thursday.

The Huntsville City Council gave unanimous approval on May 24 for Facebook’s project entity, Starbelt LLC, to purchase 340 acres at $8.5 million in North Huntsville Industrial Park. Once construction is complete, the Huntsville data center will employ approximately 100 people with an average annual salary of $80,000.

To facilitate the project, Facebook will receive an investment credit under the Alabama Jobs Act with an estimated value of $86.25 million over 10 years. Total new revenue over 30 years from the Data Center is estimated to be $297.3 million, which will be divided between the state, county and city.

“Every day, millions of people around the world use Facebook’s products, and this new Alabama data center will soon play a role in keeping the company’s popular platforms running flawlessly,” said Ivey at a ceremony at the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce. “Facebook has found a great location in Sweet Home Alabama, and we’ll do our best to help the company grow and prosper here.”

Facebook said it chose Alabama and the Huntsville area because of quality of life, a pro-business environment, and a talented and available workforce.

“Huntsville’s Gig City strategy to sustain our position as a leader in the knowledge economy has brought us a company that knows something about creating connections,” said Mayor Tommy Battle. “Facebook has built its business on connecting friends to family, businesses to customers, and people to the world. Huntsville is proud to be the center of these connections with the construction of this data center.”

Matt VanderZanden, director of site selection at Facebook, said the company is excited to be joining the Huntsville community. He added the company looks forward to developing a strong partnership with the community.

“As one of the fastest growing tech hubs in the country, we knew it would be a great location for our newest data center,” he said.

Facebook has established a page for the project at facebook.com/HuntsvilleDataCenter. “Like” the page for updates specific to the Huntsville data center, including job postings, information on how to join in the construction process, and more.