Apple confirms North Carolina facility
After weeks of speculation, Apple on Wednesday confirmed its plans to build a server farm facility in North Carolina. Gov. Bev Perdue officially welcomed Apple to North Carolina after signing a bill giving the company a state tax credit worth $46 million.
"We're looking forward to building a new data center in North Carolina, and we appreciate the efforts of Gov. Perdue and state lawmakers who helped make it possible," Apple representative Susan Lundgren told CNET. "Our teams are getting started right away to acquire a site for the data center, and we plan to begin construction soon."
Changes in the tax laws were not without opponents. Last week when the House voted in favor of the tax credit by a vote of 80-34, House Minority Leader Rep. Paul Stam was clearly upset with the incentives.
"They're playing us," Stam said. "And they're going to keep playing us as long as you agree to be played. They'll either come or they won't come, but whether they come I can virtually assure you it will not depend upon whether you pass this bill."
North Carolina said the Apple server farm will have about 50 full-time employees. One of the regulations that Apple has to follow is that the average wage in the facility exceed the wage standard in the county where it's located.
Overall, when all job types (like maintenance) are factored in, the state expects the Apple facility to create up to 250 jobs. The Department of Commerce estimates that with a $1 billion investment, more than 3,000 jobs could be created in the regional economy.
"North Carolina continues to be a prime location for growing and expanding global technology companies," said Perdue in a prepared release. "We welcome Apple to North Carolina and look forward to working with the company as it begins providing a significant economic boost to local communities and the state."
The site has not been finalized yet, but Catawba and Cleveland counties are said to be potential sites for the facility.
Jim Dalrymple has followed Apple and the Mac industry for the last 15 years, first as part of MacCentral and then in various positions at Macworld. A guitar player for 20 years, Jim also writes about the professional audio market, examining the best ways to write and record songs on a Macintosh with Logic Pro and Pro Tools. Jim is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
But, you really should read the article before commenting. The headcount of 50 is for direct Apple employees, when you factor in all the other workers that will work at or support the facility in state, it is quite larger.
The reality is that EVERYONE, educated or not, needs employment.
Does kcotham need a new thinking cap or is he/she a shill for Apple? Building the place is a one shot deal. After that it'll be dead weight on the tax rolls.
250 jobs? Those are really expensive janitors. Or are people dump enough to think that Apple will have skilled techies on site?!? It'll be a lights out place and they'll have admins from India login to administer it.
This sort of think will just make the state poorer. Sitting there consuming real estate and paying no taxes.
I know! they can build a GM dealership for every employee to buy a car and subsidize that as well.
Granted, it isn't the best investment in the world that North Carolina could have made, but it's better than the 50 jobs some people were assuming. As for outsourcing to India, Apple has a good track record for avoiding that 21st century blunder. So I doubt they will do it here. The tax incentive they got at first is not a permanent thing. Eventually the taxes they pay will be a source of revenue for the state.
Just for the record, I'm personally against tax incentives, but some times they are a necessary evil.
Don't you mean an "Overpriced Gadget and Less Than 5% Market Share Chinese Computer Outlet"
how is this story REMOTELY News ... instead of the OBVIOUS - Apple Pimp Pandering???
[CNET editors' note: Personal attack deleted]
You need to be taller than "this line" to post here."
It isn't the physical height, there are mature and intelligent individuals who are "little people." However, we get your point, a person should be in charge of their "faculties" if they are going to troll.
A retail store could be described as a "Overpriced Gadget and Less Than 5% Market Share Chinese Computer Outlet," assuming that the products sold inside qualify.
A server farm can not be.
If they split the $45 million between the 300 workers, that is $150,000. If they gave $150,000 to 300 random people in North Carolina, that would have had a larger effect than this Apple deal.
A major push online? Are they going to buy Yahoo! or AOL and build a web services environment? Maybe they are going to really buy twitter and start tweeting video and music?
Seriously that's pretty big news.
Apple never did like to share. My guess would be a direct assault on RIM. iPhones, iPods the alleged iPad and come to think of it who needs AT&T?!?
I do how expect expect huge rises in people downloading and watch films, tv series, music from Apple services over the next few years. This facility is likely design just to increase capacity's in there systems and may be build in some redundancies for the current systems to meet this new demand appearing, especially as broadband speed increase and the availability of broadband is extended.
Not to mention, the more tech jobs and tech companies NC brings to it's state, the more people will think of NC as a tech savvy state. Tech is the future, not smoking cigs.
As for "corporate wellfare"...
Since when is cutting taxes for ANYONE welfare. There is no defacto right to tax the crap out of everyone, and it's not a "gift" when you can negotiate lower taxes.
Say did they mention who's going to pay to have all of the utilities run out to the place? I bet NC going to pay to get power to the place as well. Naturally Apple will be wanting nC to pay for the UPS's as well.
Besides, that's $1B less than the Mets and the Yankees have received from NYC for FOUR different stadiums... The city hasn't even come close to recouping any of that money, and it becomes less and less likely that they ever will. $46M is small potatoes when big cities are doling out billions and the US is doling out trillions. Even if the $46M would cover the costs of building the facility and paying all of the workers for a year (which it won't), these facilities can't just pick up and go... Unless Apple were to suddenly cease to exist (zeus forbid) NC and the target county will make their money back.
Wake up people. NC been played for a fool.
NYC shot itself in the foot so NC should as well? Last time I saw a Yankee game on TV there were a lot of empty seats where the high end was supposed to be. Ih yeah and they cut the ticket price in half.
- by Mikem704 July 4, 2009 3:29 AM PDT
- Apple has been here before, in Charlotte with a bigger presence than they will have this time. Charlotte was a regional hub and training center. They pulled out, don't know why.
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(26 Comments)Rest assured they will have as my contract employees as possible. There are lots of kids out there who know about computers and advanced IT systems. The IT field isn't as good as it used to be.