FOCUS LOCATION UPDATE
Issue 10, June/July
LINES TO ATTRACT INVESTMENT The war of independence might be long over in the US, but try telling that to the many states and cities now competing to attract companies willing to make major investments in building new data centers
M
issouri has recognised it has fallen behind other US states in attracting the employment and tens of millions of dollars that a
large data center can bring to city and state. As a result, it is currently tabling laws that would make it more attractive to potential investors.
States including Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma are already reaping the rewards for introducing tax incentives that make building a data center much more attractive to large companies. “There has been a lot of talk about revenue shortfalls this session,” said Daniel Mehan, Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry president. “The way to narrow the revenue gap is to create jobs and, bottom line, these proposals are jobs bills.”
A range of new bills being put forward would establish state and local tax exemptions for data centers. These include tax credits to new businesses in industrial zones certified as Enhanced Enterprise Zones, tax exemptions for data centers and server farms from certain kinds of sales tax, and tax credits schemes dependent on size and the number of new employees taken on.
“Decisions on where to place data center operations are happening now,” Mehan said. “There are more than $10bn in potential investment on the table in the next three years. As a state, we can either go in the direction to secure our share, or be left behind.”
Washington State has learned from its own mistakes and has just enacted new tax incentives to make it more attractive for large companies to build data centers in rural areas.
The irony is that the incentives now enacted were the same ones rejected a year ago and were partly to blame for Microsoft pulling its cloud computing platform – Azure – out of the town of Quincy. The town plays host to large server farms owned by Microsoft, Yahoo and Intuit, thanks to the availability of cheap, renewable hydropower.
52
www.datacenterdynamics.com
Washington State – new tax exemptions introduced in WA apply to the following: • Sales of server equipment for data centers; • Labour and service charges for installing servers; and
• Sales of power infrastructure equipment, along with labour and services during installation.
Representatives for Quincy say the new tax changes are already working, with the town registering an upswing in interest from companies looking to locate data centers there.
DOWNTOWN CHICAGO GETS GREEN DATA CENTER
Downtown Chicago is set to get a badly needed boost in data center space, following the green light given by the city to JRM Technology’s plans to build a 315,000 square foot data center.
Located at 111 E Cermak, the project is a six- story, ground-up data center that will include 143,000 square feet of raised floor area.
Data center space in Chicago is at a premium thanks to the online trading activities of large financial firms. “This will be the first data center in the downtown area designed and built specifically as a data center from the ground up,” said JRM principal James McHugh.
Construction will start in the autumn with a predicted completion data of late 2011. JRM plans to seek Gold LEED certification for the building, which will include louvers along the walls for fresh air cooling and a green roof of vegetation spanning 10,000 square feet.
The design calls for a reinforced concrete structure, heavy floor loading and 18ft high ceilings.
GREEN LIGHT FOR CANBERRA TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
Following two years battling to secure more than £600m in funding, Australia is set to get
Canberra Parliament, Australia
one of its biggest and greenest data centers spanning 14,000 square metres.
Proposed by Technical Real Estate (TRE) and backed by funding from Challenger Financial Services, the Canberra Technology Center (CTC) in Hume will be powered by an onsite gas-fired co-generation power plant.
TRE says the plant, located on a 31-acre greenfield site, will feature “the world’s most advanced liquid CO2 cooling for high-density computing”. The site will be capable of hosting 14 separate facilities.
“The site will be progressively developed over the next 10 years, and TRE will lead the process to get pre-commitment,” said Trent Alston, head of real estate for Challenger. “TRE’s main contribution is sourcing key tenants, [as] site development will be tenant-led.”
The onsite power plant means that CTC will be capable of operating independently of the Canberra electricity grid.
Canberra, with the most advanced fibre optic network in the country, is considered to be the heart of Australia’s information economy, with many of the largest carriers based there.
The first facility at CTC will go online next year.
US STATES DRAW DATA CENTER BATTLE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84