RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) – Apple Inc. wants to bring a new data center to Northern Nevada.
News 4’s Ben Briscoe is at the Washoe County Commission meeting, where Officials from Apple are speaking to commissioners.
Ben is reporting, if approved, the data center would be built at the Reno Technology Park.
According to Ben, Apple wants to begin construction in August with completion estimated for the end of the year.
Apple's comment on bringing the data center to Reno is as follows:
"We hope to build Apple's next data center in Reno to support Apple's iTunes Store, App Store and incredibly popular iCloud services. If approved, this project would expand our presence in Nevada and create hundreds of construction jobs over the next year, plus permanent jobs at the data center which will add to our existing total of nearly 400 employees in the state."
Steve Hill of from the Governor’s Office estimates the plant would bring 500 construction jobs in August. 230 direct jobs and 90 indirect jobs coming upon completion.
Mary-Sarah Kinner, the Press Secretary for the Governor’s Office confirms to News 4 the Governor's Office of Economic Development is involved in the deal to bring Apple to Northern Nevada.
Apple Estimates the data center would bring with it about $1 billion in economic impact to the region over the course of 10 years.
The data center would be used for storage for Apple’s cloud system.
Because of the tax structure, the Washoe County School Board has to sign off before a deal can become official. The board is meeting tonight to discuss the deal.
Reno City Council also has to sign off on the deal. According to Michele Anderson with the City of Reno, the Council is expected to take action at tomorrow’s meeting.
Washoe County chairman Bob Larkin commented, saying:
"The Washoe County Board of Commissioners recognizes that, as a leader in the global economy, Apple has many choices worldwide for where they can locate and invest hundreds of millions of dollars, and the Board is extremely proud to endorse this project and be in the running to partner with them on such a prestigious economic development project. Having Apple in our community would put us on the global economic development map for other related industries.” Larkin continued, “This proposed high speed data center could bring hundreds of much needed construction jobs to our area in the coming months. In addition, Apple promises the investment of $1 billion dollars in our region over the next 10 years. The agreement to move forward with this project represents a watershed moment for our region's economic future."
