Outside Apple\'s new multi-million dollar Newark facility (photos)

Earlier this week, the San Jose Business Journal reported that Apple had acquired the impressively-equipped but never used data center, which was originally conceived for communications company MCI WorldCom before getting mothballed after its 2001 completion.

The iPod maker paid an estimated $45 million to $50 million for the 107,000-square-foot facility — almost a third of the fetching price for similar buildings — by acquiring it through Dallas, Texas-based Stream Realty Partners, which buys and resells unoccupied data centers at discount.

According to AppleInsider correspondents, the data center as of Wednesday afternoon reflected very little, if any, activity. Only a single automobile was parked in the lot of the building at 39800 Eureka Drive, which is completely secured by iron gates and upwards of 50 wide-angle and sweeping video surveillance cameras.

Categorized as a "Tier IV," the most elaborate of data centers, the Newark facility is said to sport the highest levels of redundancy and security, Internet pipes and ventilation systems. Its outside gates require a key-card for access, according to correspondents — whose overall impression was that "the facility did not look very friendly."

Apple's precise plans for the data center are unclear at this time. Several photos of the exterior and entranceway are provided below for curious readers.