“This would be the largest by far,” said Rob Bencini, a former Guilford County economic development official and a consultant for business development and governmental policy. “That’s how big this is.” Read more…
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GREENSBORO — Guilford County and Greensboro will likely be asked to give American Express between $11 million and $13 million in incentives if the New York-based company builds a $400 million data center in the eastern part of the county.
An official familiar with Greensboro’s proposed package — expected to be presented to the City Council in executive session tonight — put the figure at between $5 million and $7 million.
Details of the package could not be determined Monday but would likely include water, sewer and road improvements.
On top of that, Guilford County will be asked to put up $6 million, which would be the largest incentives outlay in the county’s history.
Since 1993, the county board has approved less than $14 million in financial incentives. The biggest outlay — $2 million — went to RF Micro Devices in 1999.
“This would be the largest by far,” said Rob Bencini, a former Guilford County economic development official and a consultant for business development and governmental policy. “That’s how big this is.”
The board will hold a public hearing May 6 to consider the request.
American Express wants to build a data center that would employ between 125 and 150 people. The company, best known for its credit card and travel operations, is also reported to be considering an unspecified offer from Des Moines, Iowa.
After 20 years, local officials say, the company investment could surpass $1 billion.
“I can’t really overstate the impact of a project like this,” Bencini said. “This is a huge project.”
The commissioners learned about the project at their meeting last Thursday.
“Historically, in all of these requests that I have seen, the participation of the city has been about the same as the county,” Commissioner Billy Yow said. “Typically, they feel like they are offering the same thing to the city they are to the county.”
The American Express project would involve two buildings on two parcels in eastern Guilford: about 100 acres in Rock Creek Center and part of a 700-acre tract owned by developer Roy Carroll near Knox Road and Birch Creek Road.
The Carroll property would be annexed into Greensboro, allowing the city to share in the incentive offering and benefit from the promised boost to the tax base.
In 2004, Carroll offered to donate 100 acres of the eastern Guilford tract for the incentive package that Greensboro put together to recruit Dell, the giant computer company that decided to build in eastern Forsyth County.
Although his land wasn’t ready for development at that time, Carroll said in 2005 that it had been prepared so it could be construction-ready in four months.
Carroll was unavailable for comment Monday.
Iowa officials are tight-lipped about their efforts to recruit the company. The proposed project has gotten no media coverage there.
Des Moines is a major insurance and financial-services business region, according to a professor at Des Moines’ Drake University.
“Outside Hartford, it’s the biggest insurance center in the nation,” said Tom Root, an associate professor of finance.
Root hasn’t heard about the American Express project, but based on what he knows about the economy, economic development officials there would be very interested in the company.
“I would say that yes, they would be targeting that industry. Absolutely,” Root said. “In general, when you think about the area and the industry here, that’s a really good fit.”
The Iowa legislature passed a bill in 2009 to give major incentives to companies building data centers after it recruited centers from Microsoft and Google.
Under that law, the biggest incentives would include permanent sales-tax exemptions on equipment and electricity for those investing $200 million over six years.
How City Council members and county commissioners respond to the proposed packages remains to be seen.
Yow says he plans to vote against the incentives “even with the state of the economy.”
He added: “The performance of these big companies coming in and asking for money hasn’t been that great lately. Look at Dell.”
Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com
Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com
http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/04/20/article/american_express_incentives_could_total_13m