It looks like DC Blox, an information infrastructure technology company, is bringing a new $305 million data center to Guilford County.
On Monday, Sept. 21, Guilford County government quietly announced that it would hold a public hearing on an economic incentives package for DC Blox – and a county public hearing of this sort almost always means the deal is a done deal and the company will proceed with its project.
The company plans to invest up to $305 million in capital expenditures in High Point. The High Point City Council will also hold a hearing in October to determine whether it will offer incentives to the company. The answer to that questions is also, almost certainly – Yes, it will.
The datacenter will be on a 14-acre vacant lot at 4131 Sheraton Ct. in High Point at the corner of Piedmont Parkway and Sheraton Court in the Piedmont Centre business park.
Many details regarding the project are being kept close the vest right now, however, High Point Economic Development Corp President Loren Hill called this a “major project.”
DC Blox owns and operates multi-tenant data centers across the Southeast and owns and runs a private data network that enables busineses to have access to cloud providers. It has data centers in Alabama and Tennessee and, it now appears, will have a large one in High Point in the future.
The Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA) has been working with the company in secret this year to help bring the project to High Point. It has no doubt been the discussion of closed sessions among GCEDA members, the county and High Point. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners held a closed session on Thursday, Sept. 3 for the purpose of discussing an economic development incentives package.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has approved almost all incentive requests that have come before the board over the last decade. In this case, the board will consider authorizing an incentive for 50 percent of property tax revenue paid by the company and its clients for “an agreed upon period of years” – however, the county’s meeting announcement didn’t say how many years that would be.
If approved, Guilford County would provide the financial assistance at the time the company completed the facilities infrastructure – pursuant to an incentives performance agreement that would include benchmarks and the schedule for the payments.
The City of High Point will consider a similar deal for city property taxes on Monday, Oct. 5.
Sigh. More corporate welfare. At the expense of the taxpayer, and ALL businesses who are not receiving the same.
But hey, it’s not the city’s money. It is ours.
If instead, you reduce the city property tax rate, then it will be less expensive for EVERY business and resident in the city. A real reason to work and live in HP.