Ohio Governor Confirms $1.1B Amazon Data Center Project in State

An upcoming $1.1 billion Amazon data center project in central Ohio has been confirmed by none other than the Ohio Governor John Kasich.

During a recent campaign stop, Kasich said he had met with top Amazon officials and that the company would make a "billion-dollar investment in cloud," which would bring jobs to his state, the Columbus Dispatch reported. The exact location is yet to be determined, with officials from different parts of the state trying to entice the company with local incentives.

Reports that Amazon was evaluating potential data center sites in Ohio started surfacing earlier this year. The state has approved two tax credits, and officials in the cities of Dublin and Hilliard approved freebies for the company to sweeten the pot for the massive construction project.

When asked by an audience member during the said campaign stop whether the Amazon data center project was coming, Kasich said the company had already committed. The Columbus Dispatch reported Kasich saying: “I just met with one of the top officials at Amazon. ... They’re making a billion-dollar investment in cloud computing. So, what is coming is very exciting jobs to Ohio.”

Amazon's response to requests for comment on its Ohio plans from Data Center Knowedge has been that the company is always on the lookout for good data center locations.

The state tax credits approved for Vadata, an Amazon subsidiary that does data center projects on its behalf, are worth an estimated $81 million. The size and scope of the project promises to spur the local economy, as these builds usually bring in jobs and help blossom the data center and tech industry in the areas around them.

Dublin offered Vadata free city-owned land, valued at $6.8 million. The town is hoping to spur a data center industry, building on a 60,000-square-foot data center project by Expedient it recently landed.

Hilliard’s proposed package includes a 15-year 100 percent real estate tax abatement of $5.4 million plus rebates and wavers of other various fees, together valued at about $200,000.

The project is expected to create 120 jobs with an average salary of $80,000 a year, according to Tax Credit Authority documents.

Earlier this month, Amazon announced the launch of a new data center in the Frankfurt area to host the infrastructure that supports its cloud services. This is the second location for AWS in Europe, adding to a previously existing one in Dublin, Ireland.