LVEDC President & CEO Don Cunningham speaking at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Mountain Incorporated’s new 182,000 square-foot records management facility in Palmer Township.

The global leader in storage and information management services has announced the opening of a new records management facility in Palmer Township, increasing the company’s state- and nation-wide network while also serving the Lehigh Valley business community.

Iron Mountain Incorporated held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Aug. 7 for its new 182,000 square-foot facility at 2300 Newlins Mill Road, which joins the company’s network of 35 facilities in Pennsylvania and more than 1,400 worldwide.

“This facility gives us the opportunity to grow our service footprint in Pennsylvania, one of the most important locations in our worldwide network,” said JT Tomovcsik, Iron Mountain’s Executive Vice President and General Manager of Records and Information Management North America.

“Opening this new facility in Easton will let us better serve the storage and information management needs of our existing and future customers in Northampton County and the Mid-Atlantic region,” Tomovcsik said. “We are proud to expand our presence with this $30.7 million investment in the ‘Keystone State.’”

The project will create 20 new jobs in the region, and at full buildout will have a total storage capacity of 2.4 million boxes, or 2.9 million cubic feet of storage space, Tomovcsik said.

Don Cunningham, President and CEO of the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), said the facility will provide important ancillary support services for the regional market, and help LVEDC recruit within sectors that require record management and storage, like healthcare, education, professional office, and professional services.

“We spend a lot of time trying to recruit companies who are headquartered in New York City or New Jersey to use us as their support services and professional office,” Cunningham said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “Your facility will be another tool, another arrow in our quiver, to help us do what we’re doing.”

Professional business services and back office operations has been identified Atlanta-based firm Garner Economics as one of the four target sectors of the Lehigh Valley based on the site-specific characteristics of the regional economy.

Among those factors are the region’s central location, proximity to major U.S. Northeast markets, well-developed transportation infrastructure, high relative broadbank rank, availability of suitable office space, strong existing local pool of high-demand occupations, and excellent healthcare system.

Founded in 1951, Iron Mountain’s solutions portfolio includes records management, data management, document management, data centers, art storage and logistics, and secure shredding to help organizations to lower storage costs, comply with regulations, recover from disaster, and better use their information.

Trusted by more than 230,000 organizations around the world, Iron Mountain boasts a real estate network of more than 85 million square feet across more than 1,400 facilities in 52 countries dedicated to protecting and preserving what matters most for its customers, according to the company.

Although its corporate headquarters is in Massachusetts, Iron Mountain employs more people in Pennsylvania than in any other state, with just over 1,100 employees. Out of its $2.5 billion in annual revenue, about $130 million comes from Pennsylvania, Tomovcsik said.

“It’s very attractive for us to be here in the Easton area,” Tomovcsik said. “This facility is a showcase for us, and I’m sure we’re going to bring a lot of customers in here.”