Apple confirms $1bn data center

Apple will build its first data center on America's east coast now that North Carolina agreed to massive tax breaks designed to lure the company. The same day NC governor Beverly Perdue signed a lucrative corporate incentives deal into law, Apple confirmed it is browsing locations within the state for a new $1bn data center …

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm

50 data center workers? How many of those, apart from the janitor and canteen burger-flipper etc, will actually live in the "poorest county"? Perhaps that will create 20 direct in-county jobs + provide an extra half acre for the lawn guy to mow and an extra week per year of landscaping jobs. For that employment stimulation, Apple is getting 4.6million per year?

There will be some building/installation work. But again, most of that will likely come from out of county and is not on-going. These days "building a data center" really means "Where do I offload these containers?". Thankfully the people that live in poor counties can't afford lawyers to chase away ugly data centers.

If I was a smaller business that really creates a lot of business and employment opportunities for "the poorest county", I'd be really annoyed that I have to pay full taxes to subsidize this exercise.

[bish]

Perdue's kidding himself...

...If he thinks a DATA CENTRE is going to create 250 jobs for locals. I thought 50 sounded a bit optimistic. And he seriously thinks Apple will employ the locals for REPAIR!???

Talk about a sucker...

[Peyton]

@Perdue's kidding himself

minor note: "Beverly" Purdue is a woman.

[Jared Vanderbilt]

I seem to remember Dell executing a similar plan.

http://clawback.org/2008/09/09/will-north-carolina-have-nothing-to-show-for-its-dell-subsidies/

Apple has a track record of doing the same.

http://call-center-software.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-services/articles/42266-jobs-created-apple-colorado-springs-no-longer-needed.htm

I think the only ones making any money in these "employment" schemes are the dirty politicians.

[Dan]

Not that bad

How many datacentres look ugly? The company I work for has several, and they just look like common office blocks, since to advertise otherwise would be unwise. Same for other companies I know of. As for local jobs, I'm guessing a $1bn DC is going to be, like, a tier 4 or something. That will require some fairly serious facilities for mains power, backup generators, comms links etc, so there will be some local jobs.

[Paul Coen]

What a joke.

So let's assume it is 50 jobs. That's almost a million dollars per job on average. Over ten years, it MIGHT be a break-even, assuming the state doesn't end up picking up the tab for a lot of infrastructure improvements. And a bunch of the taxes paid on the wages will be going to the Federal, not state gov't.

This whole thing is a race to the bottom, and since we have no national policy, it's not going to get any better. States would be better off streamlining the paperwork and taxes that small businesses have to pay, and making it possible for small businesses to form groups for negotiating health care (each state has a small business association, for example, use that) to get the rates down.

Almost every state and lots of cities do this - big breaks to certain (larger, well-connected businesses), even if there aren't going to be many local jobs, and they're indifferent to the businesses that employ the most people. Small businesses are the largest employer in this country, it's time that the policies reflected that.

[Marvin the Martian]

Good J/job(s)

Of course, highly skilled datacenter maintenance crews typically live in the poorest counties.