(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Confirming rumors that Apple (www.apple.com) has been scouting North Carolina sites for its most ambitious server farm project to date, Apple has officially selected the state as a location for a new data center, where it is expected to invest more than $1 billion in the project and the economy over nine years.
The Wednesday afternoon announcement comes hours after Governor Bev Perdue’s morning signing of Senate Bill 575, which modifies the method by which capital-intensive businesses calculate corporate income tax, effectively giving Apple around $46 million in tax incentives over the next nine years.
“North Carolina continues to be a prime location for growing and expanding global technology companies,” Perdue said in a statement. “We welcome Apple to North Carolina and look forward to working with the company as it begins providing a significant economic boost to local communities and the state.”
While the specific location of Apple’s new facility remains unknown, sites in western North Carolina are under consideration, including in Catawba and Cleveland counties, which will create 50 full-time jobs and put another 3,000 people to work in various capacities in an area where unemployment is roughly 15 percent — well above the national rate of 8.9 percent.
Bill 575 also requires Apple to meet investment standards, provide its employees with health insurance, and pay wages that on average exceed the wage standard in the county they are in.
Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco said the role of capital-intensive industries play an important role in the state’s economy and the success of small, local businesses. “Technology-driven projects like this may bring fewer overall jobs than traditional industry, but they have a tremendous economic impact through locally purchased goods and services,” Crisco said in a statement.
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