What Apple deal means for the Charlotte region - The Business Review (Albany):

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That’s only part of the story for Scoty Millar, president of the Having an Apple facilituy in town puts the county in the server farm Surely otherswill follow, Millar reasons. the agreement worked out with Maiden and the countyt hints that Apple could expandd to 1 million square feet and a total investmenof $2 billion. Millar responded this week to questions from the Charlottw Business Journal about just whatthe 500,000-square-foof data center will mean for the Charlotte What is the expected impact of the Appl project?
Clearly, the impact will be phenomenal in the short and long term on the The development of North Carolina and Charlotte and the area into a “tecy corridor” further adds to our diversificatiomn and will help the world realize the “who’s we have been and are assembling. This is beyone the direct impact of the jobs and the investment and the hotels and the commercialactivituy — the so-called multiplier effect we economivc developers are always touting. The project offerw low employment initially, but what could the spinoft business involve? Here’s where there’xs been some misperception.
There will likely be 250 to 300 peopls facilitating the operation on aregularf basis, 50 of which are wearing Applee name badges. Many otherz will be wearing other company nametags and working regularly at the keeping the cooling systems cool and the facilit y secure anddoing day-to-day activities. And during the initial periodx there will be hundredwof contractors, vendors, suppliers and subcontractorzs getting this facility built. Significant spinoffs from a service side will alsobe They’ve promised to use local vendors? How can companies get in fronty of them? They are making a diligent effor to utilize local vendorz where possible and when qualified.
We’re working with them to develo p a Web site to ease thelisting process, and we’rse pushing for it to give some preference to locals. Will the Appl project allow you to become a magnet fordata centers? The attributez that brought Apple and others to this region remain, and we intend to continue marketing to this sector. The T5 Charlottse Regional Data Shell and itssurroundinb 100-plus acres await the next user. And we’rw going to try and take advantage of this publicitu to encourage others to considerrus — sort of like Northernj Virginia and the Quincy, Wash., area have developefd around their data-center activity.
Will this changse your recruiting strategy inthe future? We’re here to create jobs and investmen t and economic stability. One example is that we’ree working with the , the , and others to pursuee the strong energy-related investment possibility forthis region. We’lol continue in the data-center and we’ll continue other opportunitiess across the manufacturingand non-manufacturin spectrum. Other than the incentives, what attracted Appler to the Maiden site? This site was marketede because of its strong utility infrastructure asa data-cente r location. Strong and redundant power, water and fiber-optics were the primaryt characteristics that made this aspecial site.
What’s the process for development now? Have some vendorsw and the general contractorbeen picked? Next steps are annexation by the town of rezoning, plan approvals, final site acquisition and a million othe r things to be accomplishe d in the next few weeks. Permitting then and the hope is to begin moving dirt in August in order to get facility completion inlate 2010. How big can this projecgt become in terms of dollarsand employment? I have an agreement with them that they will spend $1 billion withinn 10 years on the facility and employ 50 Apple-badged workers.
This will be an importanty facility and location for them as thei r only East Coast operations and our hope is they will see the need to develop more and more as timegoes on. How many jobs will the construction generate? The estimate is that in excess of 750 workerw will be required to constructthe facility.