Google to build US$600M data center in South Carolina

The new data center will be built on a 210 hectare site at the Mt. Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County near Charleston. Land at the site was purchased by a Google subsidiary last year, according to a statement by the State of South Carolina.

Google plans to use as many local vendors as possible to build the center to maximize the boost to the local economy, the state said. The center is expected to lead to the creation of an initial 200 jobs and should see Google paying just under US$2 million per year in property taxes to the county.

The Internet search and advertising giant will be partially reimbursed by the state for site preparation and infrastructure as part of South Carolina's Job Development Credits incentive program. The state legislature has also updated the tax rules so that electricity and capital investment in equipment necessary for data centers used in the web search portal and internet service provider industries are exempt from sales tax., the statement said.

Additionally Google is looking at a second site in South Carolina near Columbia, the state capital, the statement said.

The identity of the site was not specified but a report on the Web site of the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper said a Google-affiliated company, Arum Composites LLC, recently bought 466 acres (189 hectares) of land north of Columbia.

The local community will start benefiting from the decision before the data center comes online. In neighboring North Carolina the city of Lenoir is already seeing the pay-off from Google's decision to build a data center there. Several hundred construction workers are living in local hotels, eating at local restaurants and buying from local shops.