The Business Facilities Blog

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Google Lands in Oklahoma

Wow--just got this across the wire: a $600 million data center project for Google has been sited in in Pryor, OK (about 45 minutes from Tulsa). It'll create 200 jobs averaging $48,000 in salary. Frankly, that's more jobs and salary than I would have guessed--rural Oklahoma is not an expensive area.

Now I have to tell you I've been out to MidAmerica, and it is quite a site. And quite a sight. The place is, uh, "ginormous" as they say: we're talking 9,000 acres with its own airport and coal-fired power plant (see photo, right). About 70 companies employ 4,000 people there. I actually slept in the park, alone, at the Russel Hunt Lodge (see photo, left). (Yes, I was invited to do so.)

MidAmerica owns its own water treatment and distribution system, which if you're into business parks, is quite rare. I believe, if memory serves, that the park was originally a munitions manufacturing complex during WWII, explaining its vast size, remote location, self sufficiency, and rail service through the middle of the park.

What a perfect place for a data center, in other words.

No word on who Mid America beat out to win this, but we do know that Google is taking advantage of the following incentives:

Economic Development Incentives
  • State statutory sales tax exemptions and ad valorem property tax exemptions
  • Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program has been offered by the State and may be pursued

Taxes Google will pay (after all economic development incentives)
  • Real and personal property: Tax exemptions expire after 5 years.
  • Sales tax: Estimated $6 million in just the next 2 years from the purchase of building materials.
  • Other: Payroll taxes (with the exception of any rebates obtained through the Quality Jobs Program, if any), sales tax from non-exempted purchases, corporate income taxes.
Full details are contained in these three press releases (MS-Word format):
  1. Main Release ("Google clicks Oklahoma for $600 million data center")
  2. Google's Oklahoma Project Fact Sheet
  3. Google's Oklahoma Project FAQ

posted by Karim Khan at

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