An overgrown stretch of land within sight of downtown Birmingham, which once powered the city to its reputation as a manufacturing dynamo, may be the site of the next step in its evolution into a regional tech power.

DC BLOX yesterday announced it intends to open the first phase of a technology and innovation campus in Birmingham early next year, employing 20 to start. But the company says the site, which will be its flagship data center, could potentially see $785 million in investment over the next decade.

Groundbreaking is expected to take place next month, with Phase 1 delivering 31,000 square feet and configurable up to 5MW of customer capacity by early 2019. It will also have 13,000 square feet of office space with conference rooms, staging areas and work stations.

DC BLOX picks Birmingham for data center 7 Gallery: DC BLOX picks Birmingham for data center

The center is being marketed for business, healthcare, government and hyperscale cloud edge deployments.

DC BLOX CEO Jeff Uphues said the Magic City became the company's destination after it scouted 40 cities based on fiber optic networks, power rates, office space availability, an analysis of area Internet traffic and other factors.

Yet Birmingham was the largest city in America without a purpose-built high security multi-tenant data center, he said.

The company's first look at the 27-acre property off Sixth Street South came on a rainy day last August, Uphues said. It was a deserted tract of land in the heart of the city with a view of the Birmingham skyline and the sounds of traffic from Interstate 65 audible just beyond the trees.

The site had been home to Ingalls Ironworks, built in 1910 and at one time the largest single-unit steel fabricator in the South, until the company's shipbuilding works grew beyond it. Trinity Steel bought the property in 1981.

The site was purchased in 2005 by the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority, on behalf of the county and the city of Birmingham. It became a brownfield through an EPA grant. Over the years, proposals were floated to turn the land into public housing, or as a home to a UAB football stadium.

Uphues said the property was much bigger than what the company had originally had in mind. However, its position so close to the city's heart, along with its proximity to fiber optic routes, utilities, and the UAB campus, made the company rethink its idea. The data center was reborn as a technology and innovation campus.

Still, DC BLOX had to wait until January, when it was finalizing plans for a Huntsville data center, before a clear path emerged in securing the land in Birmingham, he said. The company had briefly pivoted to another location at Blazer Station, but that was unworkable, Uphues said.

He credited several people, including Birmingham Business Alliance CEO Brian Hilson, County Commissioner David Carrington, Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield, and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin for keeping the project alive.

The estimated economic impact of the project during the construction and operational phase is $94 million on the Birmingham metropolitan area, more than $80 million of which will be in Jefferson County, according to an analysis prepared by the University of Alabama's Center for Business and Economic Research. Economic impact on Alabama is an estimated $99 million.

The project also means revitalization for North Titusville, Mayor Randall Woodfin said, on land that hasn't seen economic activity in more than 30 years. The $600,000 from the sale of the property will be the first deposit in the city's neighborhood revitalization fund.

"It's a tremendous achievement for this community and a much needed investment in our neighborhood," Woodfin said. "Areas like Titusville have been underinvested for far too long."

At the announcement Monday, Uphues said the project could transform the Birmingham area into a "technology-focused alternative to Atlanta." Carrington said the project could have many ramifications - not just for education but as a magnet for more tech companies.

"We believe this site will be a highly compelling alternative in the Southeast to data centers in Atlanta, and those firms who use or are considering using a data center in Atlanta, you should think Birmingham first," Uphues said.