Sentinel Seeks Incentives in North Carolina

sentinel-nj

The interior of Sentinel Data Centers' facility in Somerset, N.J.

Sentinel Data Centers is the latest company looking at North Carolina for a large data center project. Officials in Durham County are considering an economic incentive package to attract a $175 million data center project being planned by Sentinel, which is looking in several states for a site, reports the News Observer.

Sentinel, a veteran player in the data center sector, currently operates a large wholesale data center in Somerset, New Jersey. The company builds and leases finished data center space to enterprise customers. Founded in 2001, Sentinel has developed more than one million square feet and 80 megawatts of data center facilities.

In a filing with Durham County, officials say Sentinel is considering other locations and that “incentives are a key consideration in its final decision on locating its new operations in Durham.” County Manager Mike Ruffin says the property tax revenues for the 300,000 square foot project will more than cover the county’s proposed investment of $800,000 in incentives.

The Raleigh/Durham area has long been an active data center hub due to the concentration of technology firms in Research Triangle Park. In recent years, the area west of Charlotte has been chosen for new server farms for Google, Apple,Facebook, Walt Disney, AT&T and Wipro/Infocrossing. The region has benefitted from aggressve tax incentives passed by the state legislature, as well as abundant land and affordable power from Duke Energy.