Apple, Inc. and Crook County have finalized the sale of 211 acres of land in Prineville. The property is adjacent to Apple’s existing Prineville facility and was purchased for just over $3.6 million.
“It is a new era for Prineville and Crook County. We are excited to see this expansion. It is good for the community,” said Crook County Judge, Mike McCabe.
Apple currently runs two 338,000 square foot facilities that house the servers for their iCloud services. The acquisition of land has Crook County hopeful that a new data center is on its way. Rumors began circling in April regarding a potentially major expansion for Apple in Prineville with an estimated $250 million data center.
However, details of Apple’s plans for their new land have not yet been disclosed.
“We are pretty excited in Crook County. Apple has been really good neighbors.They have not shared info so we do not know what their plans are,” McCabe said.
Should Apple elect to build a new facility on the land McCabe expects that they would use a different configuration than their current pod design and build a facility similar to what Facebook has done.
Construction would likely employ several local people and fill the restaurants and hotels as they build.
Apple first came to Prineville in 2012 after purchasing 159 acres to begin their Prineville data center campus. At that time Apple agreed to create 35 jobs for local citizens at a rate of 1 ½ times the Crook County median wage.
The agreement to employ local citizens and hire local contractors is typically a “handshake agreement” but McCabe says both Apple and Facebook have honored that commitment in the past.
McCabe added that he will continue talking with Apple daily as they pursue the plans for the land. “I get the sense they are anxious to get started,” he said.
Early in September Facebook announced plans to construct a third data center on their campus in Prineville. Crook County has been the envy of other counties throughout Oregon because they have these data farms.
“All we have to offer is good service and when these folks come to town we have our shovels and are ready to go,” McCabe said. “We have provided good service to both and are able to meet on weekends and various times throughout the day so they can stay on schedule with projects,” he added.
Apple will likely apply for the Long-Term Rural Enterprise Zone tax incentive that it currently has at the existing facility. The abatement is designed to assist with development in counties with high unemployment rates by saving companies millions of dollars in taxes for up to 15 years. The incentive has been a major factor in Prineville’s ability to draw data centers to town.
