T-Mobile Data Center joins Central Washington Neighborhood Microsoft, Yahoo, Intuit, ask.com

January 6, 2008 Dave Ohara

Sabey has found a primary tenant for its new data center in Eastern Washington.

The primary T-Mobile' data center in Bothell, Washington was flooded last month when torrential rains hit the Seattle area. The outage knocked the T-mobile website offline and disrupted new customer activations nationwide. Bothell is more vulnerable to flooding than other data center hubs in the Seattle area. East Wenatchee is in an area of central Washington that has seen a boom in data centers since 2006, when Microsoft announced a major new facility in Quincy to support its new online services.

Wenatchee World gives details on the site and timing.

Talking to a technology executive who was born in Wenatchee and is familiar with the local economy. He says that past gov't officials had made the decision to invest funds to put in extensive fiber network, including Fiber to the Home. On page 13 of this pdf you can see where Quincy, WA and Wenatchee, WA are listed as 2 of 7 areas with Fiber to the Home. This infrastructure coincidentally is good for data center locations along with low cost of hydroelectric power. Unfortunately, for the local gov't officials who drove this project they were a little ahead of their time and their constituents expected immediate results as they were voted out of office. Well, the next gov't officials are reaping those rewards as Microsoft discovered how Quincy is a top location for a green data center with excellent Internet connectivity. Yahoo soon followed along with Intuit, Ask.com to the same area.

So far, this has turned out to have billions of economic construction impact to the area and given the range of companies there is a diversification beyond Microsoft's initial construction. Mike Manos gives an interview on his data center construction on Channel 10.

So far I haven't run into similar stories about how Google has impacted the local economy as Microsoft has done in Quincy. Has any one seen anything about the broader economic impact of Google arriving to a local area?

Google Eyes Kansas for Data Center

December 30, 2007 Dave Ohara

Google Tax Break Approved SC Data Center

December 20, 2007 Dave Ohara

Google got its Tax Breaks in SC.

The google guys are smart and leveraging their brand recognition to help get politicians reelected, bringing media attention to their small town. 30 years of no property tax to employ 200 people.

RICHLAND COUNTY, SC (WIS) - Google won't pay property taxes in Richland County for 30 years.

Tuesday night, County Council decided on its tax incentive plan for a Google data center in Blythewood.

WIS News 10's Craig Melvin talked to County Councilman Damon Jeter and County Administrator Milton Pope. They said Google has committed to spend $600 million in Richland County. The internet giant is expected to create at least 200 new jobs with an average salary of $60,000 a year.

What the news doesn't clarify is of the $600 million spent in Richland county, a large part is capital equipment, installed by specialized technicians who are sent to the facility for installation. I would be curious how much of the local labor will get of the $600 million of construction cost.

Press Covers Google Tax Breaks & Nosy Neighbors

December 18, 2007 Dave Ohara

Given the huge Tax Breaks Google has received in its negotiations with local gov'ts, the local press is covering the process for granting tax breaks.

Google tax deal goes up for vote

But Web company won’t announce before January whether it will build 200-employee site

By JIM DuPLESSIS - jduplessis@thestate.com

Related Content

GOOGLE PROJECTS

Richland County Council will vote tonight on property tax breaks for a potential 200-job, $600 million Google data center near Blythewood, but the Silicon Valley company won’t announce before January whether it will build one.

The vote comes three months after Google paid $13.1 million for a 466-acre site along I-77. Local officials have dreamed the 80-mile stretch of highway connecting Columbia to Charlotte would become a magnet for high-paying jobs since it opened 26 years ago today.

As a result Google has been spending more time with local influentials like the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club to talk about their data centers.

Google's Data Center Strategy Revealed . . . At The Rotary Club

Posted by John Foley, Nov 30, 2007 01:24 PM

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For months, I've been trying to get Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to discuss its data center strategy. My approach was flawed. I could have gotten more information at a Rotary Club luncheon this week in Hickory, N.C.

Until recently, Google didn't talk to anyone about the data centers it's building around the world at a cost of about $600 million each, but company officials realized they needed to open up as the locals started asking questions about the tall fences, bulldozers, and dust being kicked up in their communities. So Google now talks strategy with the people directly affected.

As reported by John Dayberry in the Hickory Record, the manager of Google's under-construction data center in Lenoir, N.C., met yesterday with folks at the Hickory Rotary Club. Tom Jacobik told the group of about 100 that Google's data center there could be operational before the year's end or early in 2008. Among the tidbits gleaned: Google plans to employ approximately 200 people at the facility. (That seems to be the rule of thumb for new Google data centers.) Google's getting involved in IT skills education and retraining at local colleges. And Jacobik, one-time director of tactical operations for Oracle, is helping supervise construction of another Google data center in Charleston, S.C.

Last week, Google officials were in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where they addressed the Chamber of Commerce's quarterly meeting. Ken Patchett (he manages Google's data center in The Dalles, Ore.) gave a status report on Google's Council Bluffs facility, answered some questions, and dodged others. As reported by the Des Moines Register, Patchett also had breakfast at Duncan's Café on Main Street. (Check out the picture; I'll take two eggs scrambled, toast, black coffee.)

Harsh View of Google's North Carolina Data Center

December 17, 2007 Dave Ohara

This is an old article from Jan 2007, but interesting in that Valleywag, Silicon Valley's tech gossip Rag, jumped on Google for its North Carolina facility writing:

The fabulously profitable search engine, having pitted two depressed areas in the Carolinas against eachother, has picked Lenoir in Caldwell County as the location of a giant new server farm. I'm sure there will be plenty of rhetoric about the virtues of Lenoir, a former center for North Carolina's battered furniture industry. But Google just chose the county from which it could extract the most grotesque tax breaks.

Google was offered 150 acres on a plate, a 30-year break on real-estate taxes, and a grant from the state government. In short, a $500,000 sweetener for each of the 200 jobs Google will create.