Nuclear bomb shelter in Montgomery now serves as bunker for business data center

Fearing a nuclear attack by Chinese communists in the 80s, the late Ling-Chieh “Louis” Kung financed the construction of a nuclear bomb shelter next to the former Westland Oil Co., building off Texas 105 near Montgomery.

Originally intended to withstand the effects of a 25 megaton bomb, the site is now being used to ensure power interruptions in the Houston area are minimal for businesses and agencies that are dependent on saving lives. 

Bomb shelter turned data bunker

A week before Hurricane Beryl made landfall near Matagorda Bay on July 8, Houston-based Data Journey moved into the property that sits on roughly 50 acres, with some 911 centers renting space at the data center. 

The site was put to the test of whether it could withstand hurricane winds that knocked out power to more than 2.2 million customers.

“If this facility had failed, which it didn’t during any of these hurricanes, there would be major problems in the city of Houston for 911 services and other things that really could make an impact on people,” said Todd M. Smith, commercial adviser for the data firm.

Having a nuclear bomb shelter 50 feet below ground with several data halls and fail-safe backup generators while also not being reliant to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s electric grid operator, has its perks. 

“All of our tenants were up,” said  Ishnella Azad, managing partner of the company. “We did not go down.”

The facility gets its power from Entergy Texas, which is on the Midcontinent Independent System Operator electricity grid. It serves 15 states spanning from Louisiana up through Minnesota.

What is a data center? 

For those unfamiliar with the IT world, a data center is a physical location that stores computing machines and their related hardware, according to Amazon Web Services. It contains the computing infrastructure that IT systems require, such as servers, data storage drives, and network equipment. It is the physical facility that stores any company’s digital data, the website states. 

Almost every business operation uses data centers to store computing equipment at a central location, where they can run web applications, offer services, sell products or run internal applications for accounts, human resources and operations management. 

The benefits to using a data center include backup power supplies to manage power outages, data replication across several machines for disaster recovery, temperature-controlled facilities to extend the life of the equipment and easier implementation of security measures for compliance with data laws, Amazon Web Services’ website states. 

It’s like an apartment complex for businesses’ computing machines and related hardware. 

‘A data center with gun turrets’

After World War II, Kung came to the United States as a diplomat assigned to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., then later moved to Houston, according to a previous report. The multimillionaire founded Westland Oil Development Corp. in 1962, moving its headquarters to Montgomery.

In the 80s, Kung financed what was known as the “Westland Bunker.” The bunker could comfortably accommodate 500 people for about six months in its two levels that totaled 40,000 square feet. Features of the bunker included dormitories, hospital facilities, a jail, wells for an unlimited supply of water and a generator that could provide electricity.

The walls were built with 2 feet of heavily reinforced concrete as well as blast doors. 

Walking through its halls today, remnants of the past can still be seen such as bullet holes left on a window to one of the entrances to the shelter, prison cells that are now used as storage and empty spaces where gun turrets were once stationed.  

“This you won’t find at another data center,” Azad said, noting the bunker comes with a unique background. “Who the hell has a data center with gun turrets?”

While the data center definitely has unique features, it also has enough power that could support a small neighborhood, Smith said. 

“It has been a successful property,” he said. “It just hasn’t gotten the appropriate love and attention in a number of years…and now that the industry is more important, bigger and more dynamic, now it’s time.” 

Data center beginnings

As for the “Westland Bunker,” the site was previously used as a data center after Westland Oil Co., filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and sold the property.

Before Data Journey acquired the site, the previous owner had one company that used the site to store computing equipment. As of Aug. 8, Data Journey has 60 tenants at the data center. Costs are customized based on the needs of each organization’s requirements. 

While the company does welcome bigger clients to rent out space at the center, it doesn’t want to “get away from serving the community of the sites that we’re in,” Smith said. 

“We want the smaller customer,” Azad said. “We’re not just going after the big guys with the huge money. We want everybody to be OK. This is a place where our fellow Houstonians can come to make sure that their money, their business and their families are safe.” 

Inside of the 100,000-square-foot facility next to the bunker is a community area, which Smith calls “Club Journey.” Both Smith and Azad said they hoped the space would help them in making a connection with the community.

“We want to be more personable,” Azad said. “We don’t want to be cookie cutters. We want a relationship with our clientele and we want to make sure that we are on this journey together … we’re going to have a hangout zone, we’re going to connect with each other, we’re going to know what each others needs are so we can fulfill those needs.” 

Smith said he hopes the company can host people at the facility to get to know them better and offer consulting if needed. 

“And if that means that that some of the data won’t live here, that’s fine,” he said.

Ronald Bailey, technical adviser for the company, said that there are already conversations with clients that work with artificial intelligence. Smith said he predicts that the company will eventually work with bigger corporations such as Google and Microsoft. 

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