The Nevada Board of Economic Development endorsed a plan today, originally negotiated by the city council of Reno, to offer Apple $89 million in tax breaks in return for building a data center in the state.
Nevada governor Brian Sandoval sees the deal as a win for the state, saying that having Apple in northern Nevada will bring more businesses to the state. The state passed a law last year that gives the director of the economic development board the ability to negotiate these kinds of deals with companies that meet specific criteria.
“If we had not implemented that statute we would not have Apple here,” said Steve Hill, head of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Apple plans to build a 350-acre data center to house iCloud servers just east of Sparks, Nevada and a “business and purchasing center” in the Tessera District, a less than savory area northeast of downtown Reno.
The data center, dubbed “Project Jonathan,” is slated to employ up to 41 full time employees alongside 200 long-term contract employees, according to the AP report posted on Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek website. Construction alone could generate close to 600 temporary jobs as well, according to local paper, the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The Board of Economic Development’s approval was not required for the deal to go through, but marks yet another political step closer to Apple’s presence in Nevada. In return for the tax breaks, Apple promises to invest $1 billion in the region over the next 10 years, with an option to continue the tax abatements for two more 10-year periods after that, with continued economic investment in the area.
Source: Associated Press
