Rural North Carolina Experiences Data Center Boom

1sockchuck writes "Rural counties in western North Carolina have hit the data center trifecta, landing major projects from Google, Apple and Facebook. These marquee tech companies will invest more than $2 billion in small towns like Forest City, Kings Mountain and Maiden, a town of just 3,300 residents. How did western North Carolina become a tech hub? Aggressive tax incentives and an abundant supply of cheap power, a legacy of the textile mills that once thrived in the region, which narrowly missed winning a $499 million Microsoft data center project that ended up in Virginia."

Comments

Hey wow, this is true, I live here.

[Chitlenz]

It's been strange to see this happen. We live right in the center of all this (near Winston-Salem, apple is 45 minutes south, and google is 20 minutes west) and I have to say, these places are not subtle. These places are HUGE. I think the Elkin/Google installation is like 250 acres, which is silly huge. It makes sense, land out here is cheap but you are still 5 hours from DC which in itself is priceless for corporations (the big ones). Add in tax breaks, an evolving biotech industry (like us... we hope!), and lots of geeks near-local (the triangle with IBM/Glaxo/Redhat/Epic Games/Etc. is 2 hours east) and it seems obvious. The nice part for people who live here is that bandwidth is really really good in order to feed all these guys. REALLY good :)

Re:Hey wow, this is true, I live here.

[Pharmboy]

NC got screwed by Dell because of the infrastructure (roads etc.) they had to put in. Dell returned all other moneys. With these data centers, the infrastructure is not needed. There are already adequate roads (data centers typically employ less than 100 people), there is already tremendous electrical infrastructure (many dams and a nuke plant nearby) and the state wouldn't have to pay for that anyway. All the state is basically doing is not charging property taxes and other fees that they would not normally get to charge on an empty plot of land only. NC has been fairly smart in this, and going after data centers very specifically. They have made plenty of mistakes in the past, as have other areas, but their method of going after data centers has worked out very well and is very cost effective.

Even without the incentives, this is a pretty good area for data centers as it is somewhat centrally located (not geographically, but by population), has mild winters and moderate summers, very cheap wholesale electricity because a glut of power capability (used to be used by furniture and textiles, which are now in China and India), and overall quality of life is good here. It isn't that hard to get people to move here as it is just a couple hours to the Blue Ridge Parkway (and everything that the mountains has to offer), 4 to 5 hours from the beach (we have nice beaches in NC), you can drive to DC in 5-6 hours, NYC in 8-9, Atlanta in less than 5, Nashville in 8, etc. It isn't perfect, but it doesn't suck and there is an incredible amount of things to do within a short drive from anywhere in the state.

Re:Jobs

[sshirley]

I went to university at Western Carolina University and we typically had 30+ students in the CS program. UNC Asheville has about the same. There are also a number of regional community colleges with degrees in IT. There are plenty of educated people in the area who want to stay around home and work there. I am from New England but went to school there. Back then (1999) there was a huge dearth of IT jobs in the area. If something like this had happened then, I'd probably still be there happily.

Kinda weird seeing these towns on /.

[Anonymous Coward]

I live within a few miles of Kings Mountain and Maiden. These are towns where the newspapers' front page stories are about things like a cow escaping from a barn and causing a ruckus as local residents stepped out of their homes to look at it as it walked by (big story from sometime last year). Getting this kind of investment from big tech companies will definitely have a huge impact. It'll be interesting to see how these quiet, unknown towns change in the next five or ten years.

Re:Isn't it a bit hot there?

[PawNtheSandman]

I'm in NY. They been talking about "Tech Valley" BS for years. AMD has been taking years to build a plant up here, and even when it is ready to open, all the upper tier tech positions are being filled by out of state workers.

The majority of the good jobs are going to local union construction, electricians and plumbers who will be working on the different sites for years, not the local techies.

Re:Jobs

[jamesoutlaw]

Rural life has a lot more to offer than "country music" and "small bars".

Besides, Forest City is a little over an hour from Charlotte-
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Charlotte,+NC&daddr=Forest+City,+NC&hl=en&geocode=Fc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA%3BFXsnGwIdcdYe-ymL-Li2eUBXiDEcD-cexdHc0Q&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.330812,-81.864624&sspn=3.136834,3.66394&ie=UTF8&z=9

Kings Mountain is a little over 30 minutes frmo Charlotte:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=kings+mountain,+NC&daddr=Charlotte,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FU7MGQId9tQm-yl3b2jZZN1WiDHoaxOciHBonA%3BFc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.289595,-81.602645&sspn=0.784656,0.915985&ie=UTF8&ll=35.256834,-81.088715&spn=0.784971,0.915985&z=10

and Maiden is about an hour away
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Maiden,+NC&daddr=Charlotte,+NC&hl=en&geocode=FYnXHgIdnc4o-ymH5GR5yzRRiDFUcW6pZdAArw%3BFc-FGQIdiW4u-ymBGjj8xB9UiDFk0UO_5lBGiA&gl=us&mra=ls&sll=35.256834,-81.090088&sspn=0.784971,0.914612&ie=UTF8&z=11

These places are hardly remote and isolated. There will be plenty of people who will be willing to take the jobs offered in these places (and who will appreciate the low cost of living and the proximity to a larger city).

acres of forested property...

[Junta]

You can buy/build a house on acres of wooded property. Private, low maintenance, no HOA living.

Horrible residential internet though.

I frequent those areas and its some of the most awesome living. Drawing talent away from RTP doesn't seem infeasible.