AT&T Picks North Carolina for $200 Million Data Center

North Carolina continues to attract major data center projects to the state. Today AT&T announced that it will invest $200 million to build a major data center in Kings Mountain, N.C. in a data center park operated by T5 Partners.

The announcement is the latest in a series of data center wins for the state. In the past four years, the area west of Charlotte has been chosen for new server farms for Google, Apple, Facebook, Walt Disney 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.

“AT&T could have located this data center anywhere, but they chose North Carolina," said North Carolina Governoe Bev Perdue. "Their decision is a testament to the excellent economic environment we’ve created for technology innovation in this state. With each evolution of AT&T’s business, from telephony to Internet service to wireless communication, we’ve seen the fruits of their investment here. This data center is just another sign of their commitment to North Carolina.”

AT&T plans to create more than 100 full-time jobs and invest more than $200 million to construct the facility in Kings Mountain. The company expects to fill more than 1,000 construction-related jobs needed through 2013 to complete the data center. The facility is scheduled to open in 2014

“We appreciate the years of hard work by North Carolina’s visionary leaders, at both the state and local levels, who have made this state attractive for companies looking to invest and a good place to do business," said Cynthia Marshall, President of AT&T North Carolina. "Four years after opening a broadband technical support call center down east, in Goldsboro, we are thrilled to announce today that AT&T’s newest data center will be located in western North Carolina.”

State officials said the data center in Kings Mountain will create an estimated ongoing economic impact of $935 million over 10 years. That figure includes spending on annual goods and services to support the data center’s ongoing operations.