The Iowa Economic Development Authority announced last Friday that Microsoft will receive tax benefits for its plan which will create 29 new jobs with an hourly rate of $23.12.
News about a major corporation investing in Iowa spread in the state early part of June using codename ‘Project Mountain’ came out promising additional jobs and more than $100 million economic impact to the state. The name of the corporation remained hidden until Friday. Microsoft is Project Mountain.
“Microsoft has enjoyed a strong working relationship with the state of Iowa and West Des Moines and we are excited about our latest expansion project,” Christian Belady, general manager of Data Center Services at Microsoft, said in a news release. “The expansion of the West Des Moines data center is a win-win, bringing both new jobs to Iowa while supporting the growing demand for Microsoft’s cloud services. The new facility is designed to provide fast and reliable services to customers in the region and features our latest efficient data center thinking.”
Microsoft was not alone in this project as other companies were also setting up their own data centers in Iowa such as Facebook which plans to open one in Altoona and Google which already had one in Council Buffs but would like to expand it. Google announced last year that the expansion will be worth more than $1 billion.
Iowa has been inviting data centers to move in their state by offering tax benefits. Once the $678 million project is completed, Microsoft will receive up to $20 million tax credits composed of $15 million sales tax refund and $5 million investment tax credit.
The data center expansion will provide additional space for Microsoft’s additional servers, equipment, and commercial space for their cloud services. The company will also cover the expenses for renovating the roads and fibers near the area.
Microsoft has several data centers across the globe but four of them are located in the U.S. Other data center sites are Illinois, Texas, California, and Virginia. Its data center in Iowa opened in 2011.
