Nebraska

Altoona, IA Inches Ahead in Bid for $1.5B Facebook Data Center

It was revealed during the weekend that the mysterious company scouting sites in Iowa and Nebraska for a $1.5 billion data center is actually Facebook.

Facebook data center in Oregon

Facebook data center in Oregon (photo – facebook.com)

Until now, this massive project with three $500 million phases had only been known as Project Catapult in Altoona, Iowa and Project Edge in Kearney, Nebraska.

The company has been considering its options and negotiating with local and state authorities in both states since early last year.

Facebook already has similarly large multi-facility data centers in North Carolina and Oregon, and is looking to add one in the middle of the country.

In plans filed with Altoona, the owner of the 200-acre Catapult Data Center site is listed as Hubbell Properties II, LC. The initial plan included three buildings, each between 350,000 to 380,000 square feet in size. The first phase was to involve construction of one 382,252 square feet building.

This plan was approved by the Altoona City Council in June 2012, extended in Dec 2012 and then re-approved in Feb 2013. Then the company filed an amended plan which further expands all three buildings to 466,500 square feet each. This amended plan was approved by Altoona in March 2013.

This week, both the Altoona City Council and the Iowa Economic Development Authority Board will be holding meetings to consider incentives for this project. Facebook has also apparently requested wind energy tax credits from Iowa, which will require new legislation.

Details about the incentives and jobs likely to be created by the data center, assuming Altoona lands the project, should be made clear after the meetings this week.

Meanwhile, back in Nebraska, Kearney has already spent close to $2 million to purchase and prepare a 165-acre site for the Project Edge data center. They are calling it the Tech oNE Crossing technology park.

Nebraska legislators have approved and passed legislation authorizing incentives for the project, including tax refunds for sales tax for construction material and equipment purchase, property tax exemptions, and other tax incentives. Lawmakers also directed Nebraska Public Power District to offer Project Edge low-cost power.

However, based on the flurry of activity by state and local officials in Iowa coupled with the company’s recent interest in getting approval for modified plans in Altoona, it looks like Iowa seems to be getting ready to snatch Facebook away from Nebraska.

ConAgra Sustainable Development Projects Saved $22M

Last week, Omaha, Nebraska-based ConAgra Foods, Inc., (NYSE: CAG) honored employee teams from their various plants with awards for sustainable development.

ConAgra Foods

ConAgra Foods (photo – conagrafoods.com)

The company apparently received 90 entries for their annual sustainability awards competition.

While only six of them went on to win an award, none of them lost per se, because the projects are collectively responsible for:-

- Creating savings worth $22 million;

- Reducing use of packaging material by three million pounds;

- Conserving 646 million gallons of water;

- Reducing the company’s carbon footprint by 26,700 metric tons; and

- Cutting down on 23,000 tons of landfill waste.

Listed below are the six winning teams and their sustainability projects.

Rensselaer, Indiana – This ConAgra popcorn facility won the award for improved energy efficiency achieved through grassroots engagement by employees. They managed to cut back on electricity consumption by 920,647 kilowatt hours.

Memphis, Tennessee – This ConAgra Wesson Oil facility motivated employees to do their part for water conservation, resulting in employee projects that reduced water consumption by 169 million gallons.

Helm, California – This ConAgra tomato paste facility came up with new technology that separated vines and seeds from the rest of the tomato. Their efforts ended up increasing the fiber obtained from the same amount of produce, while reducing the plant’s waste by 20 percent.

Oakland, California – This ConAgra flour mill successfully introduced a pilot program for new flour bags that reduced packaging material use b 417,000 pounds.

Omaha, Nebraska – This ConAgra Research, Quality and Innovation team simplified the ingredients required for sauces, which reduced inbound transportation and handling needs, and also produced a 23 percent drop in customer complaints.

Kennewick, Washington – This ConAgra Lamb Weston team for agricultural services is working with its potato suppliers to introduce sustainable farming methods. These collaborations between farmers and Lamb Weston accounted for 150,000 acres of sustainable agriculture land use last year.

The six winning teams each gets $5,000 which can be used for a sustainable community development project. ConAgra has been holding this annual internal sustainability competition since 1992.

Gail Tavill, vice president, Sustainable Development, ConAgra Foods, said that these projects reflect an “ongoing evolution of ownership and commitment at every level in the company, further integrating sustainability into how we do business every day.”

Magpul Looking at TX, WY, NE for Relocation from Colorado

Erie, Colorado-based Magpul Industries, a manufacturer of firearms accessories, had last month threatened to relocate out of the state if Colorado passed House Bill 1224, a law banning standard capacity magazines which Magpul makes in Colorado.

Magpul relocation from Colorado

Magpul relocation from Colorado (photo – Magpul Industries)

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper made good on his commitment to gun control by signing three new gun laws last week, including one that bans magazines holding more than 15 rounds.

For its part, Magpul has now announced that it too will make good on its threat to relocate, and said in a Facebook posting that it will manufacture its first PMAGs (holding 30 rounds) outside Colorado within a month.

The company added that they are looking at setting up operations in multiple locations.

“We will likely become a multi-state operation as a result of this move, and not all locations have been selected. We have made some initial contacts and evaluated a list of new potential locations for additional manufacturing and the new company headquarters, and we will begin talks with various state representatives in earnest if the Governor indeed signs this legislation.”

The company’s COO Doug Smith is reportedly planning on meeting with economic development officials from Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Magpul has 200 employees in Colorado, and claims that it contributes $85 million to the state economy. They also claim to support another 400 jobs in their supply chain.

“We could choose to stay in a state that wants our jobs and revenue, but not our products, and lose half the jobs we are fighting to save, or potentially the entire business, when our customers stop buying,” said COO Smith. “Or, we can take the company and those 600 jobs out of Colorado to continue our growth and the growth of American manufacturing in a state that shares our values. This is not really a choice.”

Some of these suppliers have indeed confirmed that they too will follow Magpul to its new location. One of them is Denver-based Lawrence Tool & Molding, which gets more than half of its business from Magpul, and has confirmed that it will also move out of Colorado if Magpul does. Lawrence Tool & Molding has 82 employees in the state.

“It is heartbreaking to me, my employees, and their families, to think that we will be forced to leave,” said Richard Fitzpatrick, founder, president, and CEO of Magpul Industries.

EDC To Focus on Business Expansion and Job Creation in Grand Island, Nebraska

www.theindependent.com/

The Economic Development Corporation in Grand Island, Nebraska will be focusing on the expansion of businesses and growing the amount of jobs.

In the past year, the region of Grand Island has created nearly 700 brand new jobs and many of the large employers in the area have expanded their facilities.

Many new restaurants have also relocated to the region of Grand Island as well. An annual meeting was held with the Economic Development Corporation where the positive statistics were pointed out.

The Chairwoman for the EDC whose name is Ann Martin made sure to congratulate all of the business owners who were looking to make the region of Grand Island as an ideal place to live. Chairwoman Ann Martin also wanted Grand Island to preserve its tools for growth such as industrial parks, work force that is well trained and the LB840 Economic Development Program.

One of the main goals of the EDC will be to make sure that voters ultimately approve the LB840 program because it will allow the region of Grand Island to have a competitive edge when compared to other regions. Since the implementation of the LB840 program, nearly 1,188 jobs have been created in the region of Grand Island. Also, a payroll amount that is approximately $36 million dollars was also added in the area.

The Chairwoman also elaborated on a second goal of the EDC as she wanted a much stronger communication line between the community members and the EDC itself. Ann Martin wants to businesses to contact the EDC if they are looking to ultimately expand a business or add new employees. Job creation and economic growth are going to be important factors for reducing the unemployment rate in the region of Grand Island as well.

Overall, the Economic Development Corporation is going to make a positive impact on the local community in Grand Island, Nebraska.

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Iowa, Nebraska Compete for $1.2 Billion Project Edge Data Center

There’s a huge buzz among economic development agencies in Iowa and Nebraska, and it surrounds the mysterious Project Edge.

Kearney Nebraska

Photo credit - City of Kearney, Nebraska

This is the name given to a $1.2 billion data center project which is currently in the final stages of the site selection process, with two sites in Iowa and one in Nebraska as the finalists.

Iowa economic development chief Debi Durham refused to identify the company citing a confidentiality agreement, but confirmed that it wasn’t one of the giant hi-tech companies with an existing presence in Iowa, so that rules out Microsoft, Google and IBM.

One official in Nebraska confirmed it is not Facebook. As per the inside chatter, it points towards Apple being the company behind Project Edge, because they did consider a site in the Des Moines area a couple of years ago for iCloud. That project eventually landed up in North Carolina.

Besides, this kind of mysterious cloak and dagger stuff is right up Apple’s alley – most everything they do is extremely secretive, especially their site selection process. This time, the stakes for Project Edge begin with an initial $500 million investment and 75 jobs, which will grow up to $1.2 billion after the data center comes online and possibly up to $1.8 billion in the first 2 years.

Nebraska officials are pushing the university town of Kearney as the ideal location, being one of the few rural locations in the state with shovel-ready sites for data centers called “power parks.” Kearney has spent $1.48 million on creating a power park.

In fact, Nebraska just upped the stakes by passing Legislative Bill 1118, an incentive bill aimed solely at bringing home this one data center. It provides sales tax breaks and personal property tax breaks for companies that invest $300 million and create at least 30 jobs. The personal property tax break is a big deal for data centers, because a huge part of their investment is for the computer hardware required.

They are also debating a second bill that would allow the company to negotiate lower electricity rates for five years. Now all that remains to be seen is whetherNebraskacan steal Iowa’s thunder, and bring home the Apple (assuming Apple is Project Edge).

This fight is not just about this one data center either, because the forecast is for at least 1000 data centers over the next decade. As North Carolina has proved, successfully attracting data centers is a very profitable business.

Ord, Nebraska Makes the Case for Economic Development Tax

Photo Credit: Zazzle.com

Across the length and breadth of the nation, public policy is targeting job creation. Everyone is looking for “the answer,” but only one small county in rural Nebraska seems to have stumbled onto something precious.

For eleven years now, the Valley County Economic Development (VCED) Board formed in 2000 has toiled without any recognition of their stellar efforts.

But now the city of Ord and Valley County Nebraska, who teamed up to form VCED, are being toasted as a rural model for economic development.

The numbers are powerful enough to convince even the most cynical of nay-sayers. From 2000-2008, non-farm employment in this rural county grew by a staggering 42 percent, while the rates for Nebraska (6 percent) and the U.S. (7 percent) didn’t cross double figures.

Since 2000, Ord has attracted $125 million in private and public investment. More than 100 new businesses have sprung up in the town, leading to the creation of hundreds of new jobs and a strong per capita wage growth.

Today, they need skilled workers in everything from renewable energy to professional services, retail and manufacturing. The current post-recession unemployment level for Valley County stands at a hard to believe 2.9 percent while the national rate is nearly three times that.

And what of the miracle “answer” that’s driving this astonishing growth? That would be a one percent sales tax agreed to in 2001, and set aside entirely for economic development projects managed by VCED that was formed a year prior in 2000.

VCED powered ahead without any state or federal funding or grants, and has funded 38 business development projects worth a combined $2.2 million. The tax brings in around $400,000 per year, capped off by another $180,000 in loan repayments. So they have in excess of a half a million dollars each year to hand out for more economic development projects.

There’s no telling how big VCED will get eventually, but it is surely going in the right direction. The gainfully employed citizens of Orb and the rest of Valley County can attest to that.

Economic developers sitting around wringing their hands over the lack of federal and state ED programs should head out to Valley County, Nebraska and see first-hand how to unleash the power of economic development with your own two hands.

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