Apple To Invest $250 Million In Oregon Data Center
by Dave LeClair
April 22, 2012
Apple has finalized plans for their massive Oregon data center with local governments, according to MacRumors. The data center will be situated in Prineville, Oregon. Apple has agreed to invest a whopping $250 million into the data center. It is located on a 160-acre piece of property.
Besides the initial $250 million Apple has agreed to invest, the company has also agreed to spend $150,000 a year over the next 15 years. This will be in lieu of property taxes. This sounds like a lot of money, but compared to the normal property tax, it could create massive savings for Apple in the long run.
The reason Prineville was willing to agree to this is because Apple has made some guarantees about job creation and payment for the workers at the facility. Obviously, this benefits the city because it creates new jobs for residents, which will help stimulate their local economy. Apple guarantees at least 35 jobs at the center that will pay 150 percent of the average wage of the county. Prineville City Manager called the plan a "common arrangement."
Apple has already invested $5.6 million to purchase the property. They have already started on a modular data center at the location in order to build out some capacity ahead of construction of the main data center.
In response to a Greenpeace report about the types of energy used at data centers such as this one, Apple says they plan to have this data center run on 100 percent renewable energy.
