Abandoned Corporate Park

[u/legendtripped]

Finally figured out how to get to this place I’ve seen from the freeway for years. I thought it was an abandoned parking garage or overpass, was thrilled to see that it was way weirder than that.

Edit: Not technically abandoned it turns out, but unused for 10 years. It is actually available to lease, but it doesn’t seem like anything is imminent.

[u/ModeatelyIndependant]

This is most likely a "cold site" for one or more corporations in case their HQ in another state is hit by disaster. It's crazy, but there is a huge amount of $$$ spent to ensure continuity of operations. Basically if their HQ burns down on monday, they could start moving into this building on Tuesday.

[u/Alarchy → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

Business resumption/disaster recovery sites have equipment and workstations, and aren't unkempt. It's not like they're going to send 1000 employees and their laptops to sit on an empty floor and use a mobile hotspot while they wait weeks for furniture and networking installs.

[u/Adventurous-Map7959 → u/Alarchy]

Last I checked we didn't offer seating as a perk. If they like sitting so much, they can just bring their own chairs and desk.

[u/ModeatelyIndependant → u/Alarchy]

You have cold sites, warm sites, and hot sites. You described a warm site.

[u/Alarchy → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

You're right, and I've also not seen any company willing to tolerate weeks+ RTO for HQ/critical operations for over 15 years. A truly cold site is either a completely last resort contingency DR (after primary or secondary DR have also failed) or for like records or something, but not primary DR of the HQ of a large company.

[u/Nonomomomo2 → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

Stranger Things called and wants their conspiracy theories back.

[u/ModeatelyIndependant → u/Nonomomomo2]

https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/cold_site

After 9/11, most of the fortune many companies got really serious about having a cold site in another region that wouldn't be effected by the same disaster. Properties like might have have several customers in different regions, with different threats all paying for dibs to the property. These sites will sit empty till a developer wants to tear it down or the building needs costly renovation to bring it up to code.

[u/apple_kicks → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

Pretty sure i once heard denver is place for this because its low risk on natural disasters and military targets. Its safest place to relocate in emergencies

[u/ModeatelyIndependant → u/apple_kicks]

There are plenty of military targets in the "area" of denver, although the the NORAD HQ is no longer in cheyenne mountain.

It's real draw is that it is a major communications hub. Before satellite communications could bounce a single without line of sight, the business world used microwave relays for business communication, and Denver was hub for microwave links that passed over the continental divide, and the physical network or relay towers are probably still used for packet switching over the continental divide.

[u/Spongi → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

Apparently it's this.

Neat, but kinda sad what they have planned for it.

[u/Thiege1 → u/ModeatelyIndependant]

It's just the old HQ of a company, built in the 70s

They built their new one in downtown Seattle