Apple Agrees to Invest $250 Million at Oregon Data Center Site

Associated Press reports that Apple has reached a deal with local governments to finalize its plans for a new data center in Prineville, Oregon. According to the report, Apple has agreed to invest $250 million in facilities on its 160-acre property, and will offer an annual $150,000 "project fee" in lieu of property taxes over the next fifteen years. The company has also guaranteed to bring at least 35 jobs to the center at 150% of the average wage in the county.

The $150,000 project fee in part of an agreement with Apple that was made public this week. Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester called it a common arrangement.

The Oregonian reports that the value of the tax break will depend on how much Apple winds up investing. Similar tax breaks on Google's $1.3 billion data center in The Dalles are worth more than $24 million to the company annually, the newspaper said.

Apple paid $5.6 million for the project site back in February, and has already begun installation of a modular data center in order to build out some capacity ahead of construction on the main facility. Apple noted earlier this week in response to a Greenpeace report on data centers being powered by coal-derived energy that it intends for its Prineville data center to run on "100% renewable energy".

Apple just recently opened another data center in Maiden, North Carolina, where the company has indicated that it plans to spend $1 billion. The company is building a 20-megawatt solar farm and a 5-megawatt fuel cell facility at the data center, two of the largest privately-owned renewable energy projects of their kind in the country.