The samll town of Altoona, Iowa, outside of Des Moines just got put on the map in major way. The 15,000-population exurb is the site of a new $300 million Facebook data center that went online last week.

The new facility is the fourth constructed by the social media giant, and debuts an innovative, new networking fabric, which the company claims will help it scale its ever-increasing global web traffic demands more efficiently.

“Altoona is now one of the cornerstones of the global infrastructure that brings Facebook to you every day,” said Brice Towns, the Altoona data center site manager, in a blog post.

The 476,000-square-foot center is filled with row upon row of refrigerator-sized stacks of computer servers. But the enormous structure has just 75 employees, THonline.com reports.

So out of all the cities and towns in America, how did Facebook choose Altoona? Tax breaks, it turns out, according to the Wall Street Journal. In return for locating the center in Iowa, Facebook extracted a 20-year exemption on property taxes from the state, in addition to other concessions, including $18 million in sales-tax refunds or investment-tax credits through 2023.

“We’re proud … to be a part of the community here in Altoona,” said Towns. “Altoona will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy. In addition to bringing more jobs and investment to the area, Wellsburg adds 140 MW of new renewable energy to the grid in Iowa — more than what our data center will require for the foreseeable future. ”

A second center is currently under construction at the Altoona site and should be finished by the end of 2015.