Facebook (News - Alert) is getting ready to break ground on the second of three buildings comprising its $1 billion data center project in Altoona, IA. The company presented plans to the city planning and zoning commission yesterday for construction at the 192-acre campus.

Construction of the first building is expected to be finished later this year, and Facebook plans to get it operating by early 2015. Iowa has been encouraging big players to move into the area for their data center needs, and awarded the social networking company $18 million in state tax credits last year as an incentive. Facebook will get to skip out on its property taxes at the campus for 20 years and will also enjoy reduced rates for water consumption, among other perks.

Microsoft (News - Alert) is also bringing capital to the state with the recent announcement of a $1.1 billion regional data center to be built in West Des Moines. According to Facebook, more than 460 people have worked on construction of the first of its data center buildings, which will reach 476,000 square feet when completed. The second structure will be around 15,000 square feet, and Facebook is also planning to construct a bike trail on the campus. The data centers will be powered by renewable energy from a new wind project in the region.

Facebook has steadily been expanding its network of data centers as traffic to the site continues to increase along with the amount of large data items, like photos, that need to be stored and secured. The company’s first facility is located in Prineville, OR, and the company also has campuses in Forest City, NC and Lulea, Sweden. Facebook also leases space in six Silicon Valley data centers and three facilities in Ashburn, VA.