PRINEVILLE — With demand for data storage projected to keep rising in coming years, Central Oregon’s data center hub is poised to add more high-tech clients.

New buildings like the massive Facebook data center overlooking Prineville could be built, bringing new jobs to Crook County.

That’s according to David Aaroe, the executive vice president with Portland-based Fortis Construction. Aaroe helped Facebook choose Prineville for its data center campus in 2010, with Fortis overseeing construction.

Prineville’s recruitment of Facebook came over competing bids from Reno, Nev., and Quincy, Wash., Aaroe told a crowd of about 50 who gathered Wednesday morning at a Crook County Foundation event.

The town’s cool, dry climate let Facebook build there without having to spend millions of dollars on a massive chiller system for the center’s data racks. Property tax incentives proved a major leverage tool, Aaroe said. And the nearby Redmond Airport ensured Facebook officials quick access to Prineville from company headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif.

Prineville “met all these criteria that (Facebook) was looking for,” Aaroe said. Facebook and Apple “saw the advantages in setting up on the bluffs outside of town. I think we’ll see other companies recognizing those advantages.”

More computer-based clients building data centers across the Western United States, within a plane flight of the San Francisco Bay Area, is almost certain, he said. A 2012 report from global IT research firm Gartner, Inc. projects a staggering increase.

In 2000, the United States hosted a total of 35 data centers of the sort near Prineville. But by 2020, it’s expected that more than 130 data centers will be built every year, according to Gartner’s findings.

“By 2014, you’re going to see data centers consume almost 8 percent of total power consumption in the U.S.,” Aaroe said.

More companies are looking to store data with cloud-based computing, which lets them hold huge amounts of information in remote locations.

The centers themselves aren’t big job generators. Facebook’s first data center employs between 35 and 50 full-time workers in Prineville.

But building the 300,000-square-foot facility created hundreds of construction jobs, Aaroe noted.

And with each computer server lasting about three to four years, he sees future data center growth leading to opportunities for new jobs in computer server production and repair.

“These big companies need thousands of servers replaced every month,” Aaroe said. “There might be opportunities for Prineville there.”