More details of project revealed
Google has confirmed it is behind a data center project in West Memphis, Arkansas.
Dubbed Project Pyramid, plans were submitted earlier this year to develop a five-building data center campus on a 1,178-acre property on the south side of Bollinger Road in West Memphis, Crittenden County – south of a Coca-Cola Consolidated bottling plant.
The campus will be located on approximately 580 acres of the property.
The company filing for the campus is Groot LLC, now confirmed to be linked to Google, according to reports from the Memphis Business Journal.
"We’re thrilled to confirm plans to build a data center campus in West Memphis, Arkansas," Laurel Brown, Google's regional head of data center public affairs, said in a statement.
"In partnership with Entergy, our electricity utility provider, Google will cover the full energy costs associated with powering this facility. We are also working together to bring new solar energy and battery storage resources online, and to integrate innovative load flexibility into our power contract to reduce our usage during times when the grid is constrained. We look forward to engaging with the West Memphis community and will be sharing more details soon."
Earlier this year, the West Memphis city council approved a 30-year Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) arrangement with Groot, which stated that around 50 high-quality jobs would be created. The PILOT deal covers the construction of a $1 billion, 900,000 sq ft data center, but can be extended up to $10bn if the right “economic, business, and market conditions exist.” Additionally, Google was granted a 65 percent real and personal property tax abatement.
News that an unnamed data center company was looking to develop on Bollinger Road surfaced last year. At the time, the affiliate, Spark Innovations LLC, reportedly aimed to invest $3bn.
Arkansas does not have a notable data center market, with DataCenterMap listing only five facilities in the state - four around Little Rock and one around West Memphis - the upcoming Google facility. TierPoint and Mainstream Technologies operate facilities in the state. Earlier this year, a "mystery developer" applied to develop a $1bn data center in Little Rock.
Source: DCD
