Apple Inc. is about to take another serious bite out of its Crook County real estate with their newest plans, further spreading its reach in Prineville’s rapidly growing data center central. According to paperwork filed and submitted to county officials last week, the juicy tech giant has its eye set on creating two massive “data hall” structures totaling 500,000 square feet, rivaling its colossal Maiden, North Carolina facility which houses servers and storage devices for its iCloud, iTunes Store and Siri services.
Area contactors are already in the process of growing a smaller 10,000 square foot data center on that same 160-acre parcel of land purchased in February from the city of Prineville for $5.6 million.
Since the company had committed to providing 35 jobs in exchange for a sizeable property tax break, city officials had expected Apple to come forward with a bigger project and this certainly seems to fit the bill.
Under the original agreement, Apple will pay the City of Prineville and Crook County governments $150,000 a year in return for a 15-year property tax exemption. Home-based in Cupertino, California, Apple also promises to keep a minimum staff of 35 at the first center, to be paid wages up to 150 percent higher than the Crook County average. With the county’s unemployment rate stuck at 12.8 percent, those are desirable numbers for an ailing Central Oregon workforce.
At press time, there are no specific details on the projected green buildings’ purpose or construction start dates for this latest project but company spokeswoman, Kristin Huguet, stated that the giant undertaking is projected to generate “hundreds of construction jobs to the area.” Possibilities include its use as a tactical data center or become home to some future technology or service Apple will develop and market, or site for a bio-gas fuel cell array or solar farm.
In addition, Apple has agreed to help boost the city’s water system capacity by tapping into a newly-discovered underground stream.
Prineville City Manager, Steve Forrester explained that the city would be converting those test wells to production wells with Apple’s help.
“It will give them the water they need,” he said, “And it gives us more capacity than they are consuming. It strengthens our core system.”
NASDAQ News:
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) became the most valuable company in history on Monday in terms of market capitalization. Heading into the final hour of trade, the stock had risen better than 2 percent, to give the company a market-cap of over $620 billion with shares trading over $662.00 apiece. The reason for the rise in the stock on Monday appears to be rumors surrounding the iPhone 5. There has also been increased buzz surrounding the iPad mini and the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company has expanded its plans for a “set-top box.”
The previous record-holder in terms of aggregate market-cap was Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) which hit its all-time high on December 30, 1999 at the height of the technology bubble. Apple’s achievement does not take into account inflation, however, and Microsoft was considerably more valuable on an inflation-adjusted basis in December 1999. In inflation-adjusted dollars, Microsoft’s market-cap reached a high of around $850 billion. The company now has a market-cap of about $257 billion.
