Land grab continues for industrial parks in Jedburg, S.C.

Texas-based Trammell Crow Co. recently closed on 97 acres in the Jedburg area on which it plans to develop Omni Commerce Park.

The Dallas developer purchased the land for $6 million from Eastway Properties LLC, according to Grubb & Ellis Barkley Fraser, which represented the seller in the deal.

The plot, on the site of the former Baucom Nursery, is next to New York-based Rockefeller Group’s planned industrial park site and across the street from Hillwood Development Co. LLC’s proposed industrial park and Johnson Development Co.’s existing site.

The developers are prospecting that the Jedburg area near Summerville will become the next logistics center because of its proximity to the Port of Charleston and Interstates 95 and 26.

The first phase of Omni Commerce Park will include 1.35 million square feet, according to promotional material published by Trammell Crow Co. The company expects the first 500,000 square feet to be available in the first quarter of 2009.

Trammell Crow representatives could not be reached for comment. The real estate development and investment firm reported June 30 that it had more than $9.9 billion worth of projects at varying stages of development and owns or has developed more than 500 million square feet of buildings.

By Daily Journal Staff

Twin Rivers purchases 42 acres in Berkeley County

Twin Rivers Capital LLC has purchased 42 acres in Berkeley County where it plans to develop a commercial center with retail shops and other tenants.

The Charleston-based real estate investment and development company bought the parcel at the intersection of S.C. Highway 52 and Cypress Gardens Road on Sept. 19 for an undisclosed price.

The company is developing Foxbank Towne Center, with more than 500,000 square feet of retail and office space, to service Foxbank Plantation, an 800-acre, master-planned community with more than 2,400 single- and multi-family homes.

The initial phase of the commercial center will include a grocery store and various retail and office uses to follow. Twin Rivers plans to break ground in January 2008. The entire Foxbank Towne Center is scheduled for completion by 2011.

Twin Rivers was founded in 2002 and operates mainly in the Southeast. Its properties range from freestanding single-tenant buildings to multi-use strip malls.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

Del Webb community welcomes first homeowners

Del Webb Charleston, a 360-acre active adult community for adults age 55 and older, has officially opened near Summerville.

Del Webb plans 1,000 homes in the community within the master-planned development of Cane Bay Plantation off S.C. Highway 176.

The community will offer a variety of amenities and activities.

Del Webb Charleston is being developed by Pulte Homes Inc., a Fortune 150 company based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The company had revenues of $14.3 billion in 2006 and has constructed nearly 500,000 homes in its 57-year history.

Call (843) 452-6038 or email Mike Terry for additional information.

Condominium complex planned for Daniel Island

A four-story condominium complex is scheduled to break ground in downtown Daniel Island in September.

Developers Sam Levin and Michael Murray are creating a 68-unit complex called The Four Corners at Daniel Island. The project will be comprised of two buildings near the corner of Seven Farms and River Landing drives.

The condominiums will be offered from the low $200,000s to the low $400,000s, sales director Cindy Koontz said. There are 15 floor plans for the one- and two-bedroom units, which range from about 650 square feet to about 1,300 square feet.

Pre-sales are under way and model units may be complete by summer of 2008, Koontz said. The developers hope to close on the first home sales by next October.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

Downtown Daniel Island launches Phase II

Carolina First Bank and Ali Baba Restaurant are the first major tenants to sign with Phase II of Downtown Daniel Island, the 10-acre mixed-use town center project that launched its first phase in 2004.

Owner and developer James Doran Co. announced that Phase II will add three buildings and 30,000 square feet to the project. The bank will occupy about 3,000 square feet in Building 1000, a 5,000-square-foot structure on Island Park Drive.

Buildings 500 and 600 will be located on Seven Farms Drive across from the Family Circle Cup Tennis Center. Ali Baba, an upscale Mediterranean restaurant, will occupy Building 500, which will feature a patio area and 9,098 square feet of office and retail space.

Building 600 will offer 20,912 square feet of office and retail space in a two-story structure next to Guggenheim Park. Developers are in negotiations with a neighborhood-style restaurant that would become a key tenant for the building.

Buildings 500 and 600 should begin construction this summer and should be complete in about eight months. Building 1000 is expected to be complete soon after.

Downtown Daniel Island is a village-style concept offering a total of 170,000 square feet of commercial space upon completion, which is scheduled for later this year.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

New mixed-use community developing in Goose Creek

Cobblestone Village, an 80-acre, mixed-use community that will include 320 apartments and 200 townhomes, is under development in the rapidly growing section of the Goose Creek area near Carnes Crossroads.

The project, which will also include a 28-acre commercial tract, is located adjacent to 2,300 acres reserved for a master-planned community to be developed by the Daniel Island Co.

Townhomes at Cobblestone Village are scheduled to begin construction in late spring or early summer and apartments will begin construction in late summer. Price points have not yet been set.

Catalyst Development Co., based in North Charleston, is in charge of the project and is taking offers on the commercial pieces of the development. The commercial tract includes an 18-acre piece suitable for a big-box retail anchor, plus 10 one-acre parcels fronting S.C. Highway 176.

The spine road into the development is under construction,with completion expected by June.

Catalyst Development Co. has been developing commercial and residential property for more than 25 years and currently is focused on developments in Berkeley County.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

Del Webb community hosts preview event

If your looking for a retirement community (over 50 years of age) look no further than Del Webb Charleston, a retirement community near Goose Creek. Del Webb is targeting active adults and the community is currently in development. This Friday and Saturday Del Webb will host a pre-grand opening event at the Charleston Area Convention Center. Del Webb is developing a 1,000-home community on a 360-acre tract. Pulte Homes Inc. is developing the tract as part of the master-planned Cane Bay Plantation off of hwy-176, west of Goose Creek in the Jedburg area of Berkeley county. Sales are expected to open this summer. The preview sessions are Friday at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.. Del Webb, Inc. has received more than 1,200 responses to invitations to the event. Potential homeowners who attend the preview can get a glimpse of the planned community via a computer-generated, three-dimensional presentation that allows a virtual drive-through of the community and its 20,000-square-foot amenities center.

Call Mike Terry to Register (843) 452-6038 or Mike@RealEstateCharlestonArea.com

Google makes Berkeley County cornerstone of the innovation economy

GOOSE CREEK -- They came, they said, looking for a site that had everything: ready access to electricity, access to water, a dependable, diverse infrastructure, a supportive business environment and, most importantly, room to grow as the market dictates.

In the end, representatives of Google Inc. said there just wasn’t any question that the 520 acres they’d set their sights on in the Mount Holly Commerce Park satisfied all their needs.

“It was a site that we looked at for a very long time,” said Rhett L. Weiss, Google’s senior team leader for Strategic Development of Global Infrastructure.

“And it wasn’t a decision we made lightly,” he continued. “We wanted to make sure this was a place worthy of a $600 million investment.”

After months of intrigue, Google Inc. has officially announced plans to open a data center in the Mount Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County.

The revelation ended months of cat-and-mouse with the search engine giant that began last December when an entity called Maguro Enterprises LLC purchased the land for the price of $1 and “other valuable consideration” totaling more than $16.9 million.

Coming out from behind Maguro’s shadow — it was Weiss who came up with the cover name — Google executives went out of their way to be neighborly on April 4, visiting select media outlets, including the Charleston Regional Business Journal, and hosting a “community” barbecue at Cypress Gardens the following day.

The first phase of the data center, which Weiss described as an “environmentally safe and friendly use of the land,” is scheduled to open by the end of the year.

When the entire facility, presently conceived of as two large buildings on a large campus, is built out six to eight months later, it will employ about 200 people, he said.

Barry Schnitt, Google’s spokesman, said jobs created by the facility will be spread over 24 hours, minimizing the facility’s impact on local traffic during peak travel hours.

Of secrecy and server farms
Google’s Goose Creek data center will be one of a network of large service the company operates on the East Coast. In addition to this new site, Google is building a similar facility in Lenior, N.C., and is also considering another South Carolina site just outside of Columbia.

Weiss said the company is continuing to evaluate the site, but like the lead up to the announcement regarding the facility in Goose Creek, the valuation appears to be far more than that.

While he didn’t get into specifics of progress on that site, he did mention both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and wetland mitigation, two phrases that typically aren’t mentioned until well into the land-planning process.

“What all of these locations have in common is that they are all part of our global infrastructure,” Weiss said. “We began to look more earnestly at the Southeast and South Carolina in particular because it was quickly becoming a tremendous population center.

“You know, when people do a search on Google, that process doesn’t just happen. It has to be processed by a huge server farm, and the closer you are to your users, the faster that process can happen,” he said.

One question that begged to be asked was why Google was so secretive about its interest in the Mount Holly Commerce Park site.

“The reason, simply, is that we are in a very competitive business environment, and in that environment, any kind of expansion is a very sensitive situation,” Weiss said. “If you’re Google, you don’t want to provide Yahoo with information about where you think your customer base is and where it’s growing.

“Who knows, given what they know now, Yahoo might be building a facility right up the road,” he joked.

“The other thing is it’s an industry standard to keep business negotiations confidential, and I think that’s good not just for us, but for the states we want to talk to,” Weiss continued. “If it had gotten out, officially, that Google was actively considering South Carolina, the state would have been hit with all kind of competitive challenges of their own.

“In the end, that’s why we didn’t want anything said until we were sure of what we were going to do,” he said.

Google officials also emphasized that while confidentiality was key, all of the public officials involved in talks with the company fulfilled their legal obligations as the economic development matter progressed.

“They did publicly what they had to do publicly,” Weiss said.

What’s in store
Andrew Johnson, Google’s East Coast regional manager of hardware operations, said that while he couldn’t go into details on all the specifics of the data center, the easiest way to describe it is as a specialized facility that contains lots of computers that run Google’s services.

“It’s literally where your search goes when you request information,” he said.

The company will be hiring a wide range of employees, from system administrators to entry level hardware technicians to managers, food service workers and ground keepers.

The average salary of these workers will be about $48,000 plus benefits.

“We’re trying to hire locally where we can, although certain jobs requiring specific skills sets will probably go to applicants from outside the area,” Johnson said.

Unlike many large companies that have located here in recent years, Google is not leveraging the ability of the state’s technical college system to provide worker training.

“We honestly feel that the Charleston area work force is sophisticated enough to suit our purposes, and whatever training is necessary can be done in-house,” Johnson said.

Like other Google facility’s, the internal culture will stress creativity and have the accouterments of a college dormitory, with access to free food, ping pong tables and video games, and even an in-house laundry being made available to employees.

As for how the facility will function, Weiss said the design of data centers is constantly evolving as Google rethinks ways to optimize its operations.

“Safeguarding the environment and finding ways to reduce the amount of power we use are constants at Google,” he said. “Toward that end, we try to use the most efficient servers as possible at our data centers, and we use an evaporative cooler, which uses a lot less electricity that traditional air conditioning units.”

Weiss said while presently the company has concrete plans only for a data center on the site, there will be plenty of land left over for future expansion as Google grows and enters new business markets.

“Who knows what this facility might be in the future,” he said. “It could be that in the future we add a research and development facility. It could be we add a training facility. This is the first time, by virtue of the size of the site, that we’ve had the flexibility to think that way.”

South Carolina officials just got it
As for what it took to lure the technology giant, Weiss said Google didn’t come to South Carolina looking for freebies or exclusive incentives geared solely to the company.

“Basically what got us here was a great state, county and local economic development team,” Weiss said. “In a phrase, they got it. They understood what we needed to establish a presence here and they also saw us as a good fit in regard to their objective of transforming the state into a knowledge-based economy.”

Weiss said for all the secrecy attached to them, Google’s approach to projects such as the Goose Creek data center is fairly straightforward.

“We basically come in and say, ‘this is what we’d like to do’ and explain that we are trying to launch multiple interconnected projects in multiple places, which makes normalizing our costs between projects important,” he explained.

“If officials indicate their state has or is willing to create that environment, then the discussions continue; if not, or if they feel it’s not in their best interest to create that environment, that’s fine. We’ll look elsewhere,” Weiss said.

With that as context, Weiss said South Carolina was very receptive to Google’s interest and marketed itself well, telling the company of its keen interest in creating a new, innovation-based economy and laying out the full menu of initiatives it had already adopted to try to make that a reality.

Weiss said Google was very impressed that the state legislature had recently updated the state tax code to exempt the electricity and the capital investment in equipment needed by internet-related companies from sales tax.

“This is something that the state had been doing for some time for the manufacturing sector, and it showed they were modernizing their tax and economic development regimes to better fit this new economy,” Weiss said.

“It wasn’t a Google-specific move, but it is one that is good for our industry,” he said.

Google also applied for another standard incentive, the state’s Job Development Credits, an application that was approved by the Coordinating Council for Economic Development.

The JDC program is a performance-based incentive directly related to new job creation and new capital investment. It offers quarterly partial refunds of new full-time South Carolina employee withholding taxes, once Google meets the investment and job thresholds, pays payroll taxes and provides proof of having paid qualified project costs.

The first million dollars of JDCs may be advanced, if Google so elects, from the governor’s closing fund, which is a fund approved by the state legislature for economic development efforts. This funding would reimburse the company partially for site preparation and infrastructure.

Google stands to receive approximately $4.8 million in JDC funds over the next 10 years if it invests $600 million and creates 200 jobs. That 10-year period can become 15 years retroactively if the company creates 400 jobs, company officials said.

The company has also entered into a fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Berkeley County. If Google invests exactly $600 million in the Goose Creek project, its annual fee payment will be $1.96 million. The fee depends on the amount of investment the company makes: If Google invests more in the area, the fee will go up; if it invests less, the fee will be less.

Google said its fee-in-lieu of tax payments will amount to approximately $58.8 million over the 30 of the agreement. In addition the company expects to pay about $7 million in sales tax for the purchase of building materials.

More than that, Weiss said, Google’s initial investment in the land and two subsequent fee-in-lieu-of-tax payments will pay off Berkeley County’s debt service on the Mount Holly Commerce Park, a cooperative economic development site it operates in partnership with Alcoa and the Santee Cooper utility.

In return for such considerations, Weiss said Google essentially brings three things directly to the local economy: tax revenue, money paid to directly to employees and local businesses and diversification.

Speaking of the latter, not only did Weiss appear well-versed in the history of the Navy base closure, but also was well aware of the Angelou Report and its blueprint for diversifying the economy through implementation of specific business clusters.

Weiss said in addition to the state’s business-friendly incentives, another critical factor in Google’s decision to invest in Goose Creek was feedback the company solicited from existing businesses in the region, not the least of which was Alcoa Mt. Holly, which aside from now being a neighbor to Google, also controlled the land in which the company was interested.

“They reinforced our view of the positive business climate in the state and said a lot of the things people traditionally say about the Charleston region — that it’s a great place to live and work,” he said.

“Our discussions with Alcoa were particularly important, because they are a company that has made a significant strategic investment in the area, as we have now done,” Weiss continued.

Officials express satisfaction with the deal
In a joint statement with the company, Gov. Mark Sanford said Google’s announcement was “a positive sign that our efforts to improve the state’s business climate are paying dividends when it comes to attracting high tech, knowledge-based industries that will enable us to further compete in the global economy.”

“Given the stature of this company and the magnitude of this investment, this is a real win for South Carolina that will have a tremendous impact on the local and state economy,” he said.

S.C. Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor said the state’s ability to attract a world leader in technological innovation will yield substantial results for the state.”

He said Google has vowed to make a concentrated effort to use as many local vendors and suppliers as possible so that the economic impact of this investment will have the greatest benefit.

“This state-of-the-art operation will bring tremendous economic opportunity to residents and businesses in the Charleston area,” said Bill Finn, chairman of the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. “The international recognition of the Google brand will also solidify our reputation as a top location for innovation and technology.”

In the face of such comments, Weiss emphasized that regardless of whether Google expands into Richland County, its commitment to Goose Creek is for the long, long term.

“At Google we’ve always stressed that not matter how much growth the company experiences, additional projects don’t take away from the projects that preceded them,” he said. “We seemed to have seized onto something, and customers seem to want more and more of our services.

“It’s a big world out there, with plenty for everyone,” Weiss said. “And lots of information to connect people to.”


Want to work for Google?

Andrew Johnson, Google’s East Coast manager for hardware operations, said the company’s first order of business for hiring will be to find local managers for the overall facility and on-site technical operations.

Jobs descriptions for these positions and instructions for submitting resumes will soon be posted on Google’s Web site.

Johnson suggests that prospective applicants take a look at the positions the company posted for its previously announced project in Lenoir, N.C., to get a better idea of what these positions entail.

Personnel hired for these positions will be in charge of staffing the facility with maintenance, facilities, hardware and software technicians, which will make up the bulk of the job openings.

Other interested applicants and vendors can send information to info@mthollyproject.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thursday, 05 April 2007 - By Dan McCue - as provided by South Carolina's Media Engine for Economic Growth

Google makes Goose Creek plans official

GOOSE CREEK -- Gov. Mark Sanford and Google Inc. today officially announced plans for the company to open a facility in Berkeley County. Google Inc. will invest $600 million and create 200 jobs initially at the Mt. Holly data center, according to a news release.

"We are so pleased to formally announce our presence in South Carolina and our plans to build a data center. The governor, Department of Commerce and Berkeley County officials have been wonderfully helpful during our evaluation. We look forward to growing our business and becoming an active member of the Berkeley County community," said Lloyd Taylor, director of global operations for Google Inc.

Google applied for the state's Job Development Credits and was approved by the Coordinating Council for Economic Development. The JDC program is a performance-based incentive directly related to new job creation and new capital investment. The first million dollars of JDCs may be advanced if Google elects from the governor's closing fund, which is a fund approved by the state Legislature for economic development efforts. This funding will reimburse the company partially for site preparation and infrastructure.

In addition, the state Legislature updated the state tax code to exempt the electricity and the capital investment in equipment necessary for this kind of a facility used in the Web search portal and Internet service provider industries from sales tax, just like what is done for the manufacturing sector.

The data center will be constructed on a 520-acre site, which was purchased from Mt. Holly Commerce Park LLC., an innovative economic development joint venture between Alcoa and Berkeley County, by a Google subsidiary last year. The jobs being created at this facility will be spread over 24 hours, leaving a minimal impact on local traffic congestion during peak travel hours.

"This announcement is a positive sign that our efforts to improve the state's business climate are paying dividends when it comes to attracting high tech, knowledge-based industries that will enable us to further compete in the global economy," Gov. Sanford said. "Given the stature of this company and the magnitude of this investment, this is a real win for South Carolina that will have a tremendous impact on the local and state economy. It's also important to note that as we work to attract new investment and create jobs, our administration has consistently believed in doing so in a way that preserves our quality of life. Because of the way these shifts are spread over 24 hours, we're able to achieve growth in this case with a much smaller impact on traffic than would otherwise be the case, something that impacts quality of life not just in Berkeley County, but in other parts of the Lowcountry as well."

Google Inc. will pay an estimated $1.96 million annually in property tax to Berkeley County. This revenue is the equivalent of the property tax collected annually from 1,000 homeowners with homes valued at $200,000. Google also will pay millions in sales taxes on construction and numerous other purchases.

"Google is a household name and a world leader in technological innovation. South Carolina's ability to attract this type of industry and investment will yield substantial results for our state. Today's announcement is the result of a team effort from the state level to the local officials in Berkeley County. Thanks to the commitment of all parties involved, Berkeley County and the entire state will see numerous benefits for many years to come," said Joe Taylor, Secretary of Commerce. "We have enjoyed a positive working relationship with Google from the beginning. Google was upfront about what they needed to make this work and we were upfront about what we could do. We are very glad we could make it come together to bring a marquee name like Google to our state."

Google Inc. has made a concentrated effort to use as many local vendors and suppliers as possible so that the economic impact of this investment will have the greatest benefit. The company has hired local engineering and construction firms for the preparation and building of the data center site.

Similar projects by the Internet search engine leader have led to significant economic activity creating a positive multiplier effect in regions where Google Inc. has established. Following the announcement of a 30-acre Dalles, Ore., facility in 2005, new family-owned enterprises were developed, unemployment fell from one of the highest levels in the nation to below 5% and new residents were attracted to the region.

Google Inc. confirmed last month that it is also evaluating a site near Columbia and that the two sites are not in competition with one another. The Richland County site is currently in the permitting process. Once permitting is complete, Google Inc. will evaluate the site to make its future determinations.

Wednesday, 04 April 2007 - as provided by South Carolina's Media Engine for Economic Growth

Google confirms its involvement in project

After months of cat and mouse, Google Inc. has confirmed it is behind the swarm of activity on slightly less than 514 acres in the Mount Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County.

“We are the ones responsible for the activity on the site, which amounts to continued preparation,” said Google spokesman Barry Schnitt on Wednesday.

Last December, an entity called Maguro Enterprises LLC purchased the land in the commerce park for the price of $1 and “other valuable consideration” totaling more than $16.9 million.

On March 5, the Office of the Berkeley County Registrar of Deeds filed yet another deed related to Maguro Enterprises LLC, this one conferring the ownership of approximately 9.8 acres of the total it had purchased to Berkeley Electric Cooperative Inc.

The deed filer claimed an exemption from deed recording fees due to the fact the deal represented a transfer of realty “in which no gain or loss is recognized.”

The document also stated that the electrical cooperative and Maguro would share common entrance and egress from the acreage.

Given the players, and the proximity to the site now confirmed to be Google’s, the speculation is that the 9.8 acres will be used for a power substation or some other power-related infrastructure.

Laura Varn, spokeswoman for the Santee Cooper utility, which operates the commerce park in partnership with Berkeley County and Alcoa Mt. Holly, said the utility sells power to the Berkeley Electric Cooperative, which is the direct supplier of power to businesses in the commerce park.

She said she had no knowledge of what will become of the 9.8 acres, but suggested a call be made to Eddie McKnight, vice president of marketing and public relations for the co cooperative. McKnight could not be reached for comment as this article went to press.

Schnitt said Google hopes to have more details to share soon on its plans for the Goose Creek site.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal by By Dan McCue , Staff Writer

Google: Yep, It's us

GOOSE CREEK--After months of cat and mouse, Google Inc. has definitively confirmed it is behind the swarm of activity on slightly less than 514 acres in the Mount Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County.

“We are the ones responsible for the activity on the site, which amounts to continued preparation,” said Google spokesman Barry Schnitt on Wednesday.

Last December, an entity called Maguro Enterprises LLC purchased the land in the commerce park for the price of $1 and “other valuable consideration” totaling more than $16.9 million.

On March 5, the Office of the Berkeley County Registrar of Deeds filed yet another deed related to Maguro Enterprises LLC, this one conferring the ownership of approximately 9.8 acres of the total it had purchased to Berkeley Electric Cooperative Inc.

The deed filer claimed an exemption from deed recording fees due to the fact the deal represented a transfer of realty “in which no gain or loss is recognized.”

The document also stated that the electrical cooperative and Maguro would share common entrance and egress from the acreage.

Given the players, and the proximity to the site now confirmed to be Google’s, the speculation is that the land will be used for a power substation or some other power-related infrastructure.

Laura Varn, spokeswoman for the Santee Cooper utility, which operates the commerce park in partnership with Berkeley County and Alcoa Mt. Holly, said the utility sells power to the Berkeley Electric Cooperative, which is the direct supplier of power to businesses in the commerce park.

She said she had no knowledge of what will become of the 9.8 acres, but suggested a call be made to Eddie McKnight, vice president of marketing and public relations for the coop.

McKnight could not be reached for comment as this article went to press.

Schnitt said Google hopes to have more details to share soon on its plans for the Goose Creek site.

as provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal by By Dan McCue , Staff Writer

Is Google breaking ground in Berkeley County

A mystery company long rumored to be a front for Google, Inc. has begun to seek permits to build a massive facility in the Mount Holly Commerce Park, while also selling approximately 9.8 acres of land on the site to a local electric cooperative.

Last December, Maguro Enterprises LLC purchased roughly 514 acres in the commerce park for the price of $1 and “other valuable consideration” totaling more than $16.9 million.

A county official dismissed speculation about Maguro being a state or county entity securing and clearing the land as part of an incentive package for Google, saying the language was merely a phrase of art in land contracts.

However, on March 5, the Office of the Berkeley County Registrar of Deeds filed yet another deed related to Maguro Enterprises LLC, this one conferring the ownership of two portions of parcels it had purchased previously to Berkeley Electric Cooperative Inc.

This deed again listed a purchase price of $1, but also claimed an exemption from deed recording fees due to the fact the deal represented a transfer of realty “in which no gain or loss is recognized.”

Clearing of the property has been ongoing for months, with dump trucks full of soil and debris driving through the gate and past a guard house that stands sentinel over the site.

Maguro has also reportedly filed for a permit from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental control to build on nearly 170 acres of the site. According to DHEC officials, up to 152 of those acres will be built features, such as building, roads and parking lots.

A Google spokesman did not return calls and an e-mail seeking comment.

As provided by Charleston Regional Business Journal

Google reveals N.C. intentions, still eyes S.C.

After months of secrecy, Google has confirmed its intention to build a huge server farm in Lenoir, N.C., but a company official has confirmed that by no means is South Carolina out of the running for additional facilities.

Google spokesman Barry Schnitt said even as it prepares to build its new data center in Lenoir, it’s continuing to evaluate a site in Goose Creek and another near Blythewood, S.C., just outside of Columbia. 

“Right now, we’re not providing any additional information on the sites we’re evaluating, but we hope to have more information on the sites soon,” Schnitt said in an e-mail to the Charleston Regional Business Journal. 

But if Google remains coy on its South Carolina intentions, a PBS technology columnist who writes under the pseudonym Robert X. Cringley is pulling no such punches. 

Cringley, who is actually South Carolina-based technology writer Mark Stephens, has reported Google is planning to build at both the 520-acre site it reportedly bought in Goose Creek and a 466-acre the company is reportedly still negotiating in Blythewood.

These and the Lenoir facility will be joined by a fourth facility in the Southeast, the latter located just across the Georgia state line from the Palmetto State, Cringely said. 

Published reports suggest the South Carolina investment alone could range from $1.55 billion to perhaps as much as $2.15 billion, depending on the final cost of the Blythewood site.

John Warner, principle of Swamp Fox LLC and one of the driving forces behind creating an innovation economy in South Carolina, said he’s heard little about the Goose Creek site, but what he has heard makes it sound like Google is coming. 

“But then I don’t know anything I haven’t read in the paper,” he said.

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

Carolinas compete for Google data center

By Dan McCue , Staff Writer

Ground may have broken on the 520 acres an undisclosed high-tech company will supposedly occupy in the Mount Holly Commerce Center, but the competition between North and South Carolina for a piece of Google appears to be very much alive.

On Tuesday, S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell smiled and looked toward the ground when the Charleston Regional Business Journal mentioned Google’s confirmed interest in a Berkeley County site.

“I’ve heard that too,” he said before excusing himself to escort U.S. Sen. John McCain, whom Harrell had endorsed for president only moments earlier, to a waiting private jet.

Upon his return, Harrell suddenly grew tight-lipped.

“The Department of Commerce has asked me not to comment on deals they may be working on, and I’m honor-bound to respect that request,” he said.

South Carolina’s public response to Google’s interest in the state is different from that of North Carolina’s officials, who have announced they are offering the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company nearly $100 million in tax breaks in hopes of being chosen as the site of a new Google data center.

In exchange for building a facility in Lenior, N.C., and hiring 210 people, Caldwell County, N.C., officials have agreed to waive 100% of Google’s business property taxes and 80% of its real estate taxes for the next 30 years.

In December, the N.C. General Assembly eliminated sales taxes on electricity and certain other expenses incurred to build and maintain operations like the one Google is contemplating.

N.C. Department of Commerce officials have promised a separate grant, and Google can apply for additional tax credits.

The total cost of all these incentives has been estimated at about $96 million.

When North Carolina’s efforts were mentioned, Harrell again broke into a wide smile.

“We’re delighted North Carolina has been so forthcoming about the incentives it’s offering Google,” Harrell said. “It’s nice to have the competition spell out exactly what it’s doing.

“At the same time, I can assure you, I have no intention of revealing what incentives we’re discussing with Google,” he said.

High-tech firm purchases 520 acres

By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

It’s the economic development announcement former Berkeley County Supervisor Jim Rozier said he wished he could have made prior to the election.

But ask him the name of the high-tech company that has purchased nearly 520 acres adjacent to the Cooper River in Berkeley County, and Rozier remains mum.

“All I can say is we’ve hooked a good one, with a great future,” he said, explaining that a legally binding nondisclosure statement with the company prohibits him from identifying it.

Rozier said the county had been in talks with the as-yet unidentified company for two to three years, after contact was initiated by the S.C. Department of Commerce. He said the company plans to employ about 400 workers locally, with an initial payroll of $36 million.

“However, long before that, we’re going to see the creation of literally thousands of construction jobs,” Rozier said.

Several published reports suggest the company is Internet giant Google, and in a written statement e-mailed to the Charleston Regional Business Journal, Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for company, confirmed that Google is at least considering an expansion into Berkeley County.

“We are expanding our technology infrastructure to support the strong and growing demand for our services,” Schnitt wrote from the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. “As a result, we are evaluating a number of sites, including Goose Creek. We hope to have additional details to announce in the coming months.”

Site size suggests data center

Moves outside of its Silicon Valley base are not uncommon for Google, which houses its massive servers at more than 60 data centers located throughout the United States and in Europe, and has been on a buying binge that saw it acquire nine smaller tech entities in the past year, including YouTube, the popular free video sharing service.

Google currently has more than 6,000 employees worldwide with data centers located in Atlanta, Chapel Hill, N.C., and Washington, D.C.

Dustin Rector, vice president and senior analyst for Tier1Research, a Minneapolis-based firm that provides market research and analysis for the IT industry, said while 520 acres might seem like a tremendous amount of land for such an endeavor, he suspected Google might be adding a data center in the Charleston region to bolster its coverage of the Southeast.

“Such a large land purchase is a way of saying ‘we don’t want anyone around us,’ and would provide them with a firm footing in terms of securing the perimeter of their facility,” he said.

Rector, who recently completed an in-depth analysis of Google’s acquisition strategy, ruled out other possibilities, including the possible relocation of assets the company has acquired since it went public in 2003.

Since that time, Google has bought more than 25 companies, most of them small startups that had received little or no venture capital funding.

“Of all the companies they’ve bought, YouTube was probably the largest in terms of work force, with some 70 employees,” he said. “Most of their acquisitions have been more about acquiring talent than someone else’s customers. The thing they seem to want most is to continually affirm or reinvigorate the company’s entrepreneurial spirit.”

Other industry analysts said Google has been looking for a location for Google Checkout, which it introduced in June as a rival to PayPal, eBay’s online payment service.

They also indicated that such a facility would require a work force numbering in the hundreds to deal with quality control and other issues associated with the service.

But Google’s Schnitt shot down that suggestion stating that “the proposed expansion … doesn’t directly relate to Google Checkout.”

Land already purchased

Seeming to suggest that Google has gone well beyond the consideration of Berkeley County are recent developments before the county council.

In October, Berkeley County approved a tax incentive package for a development in the Mount Holly Commerce Park off U.S. Highway 52, which initially was identified as Project X and later, Project Y.

By the time the resolution reached the council, the name of the entity receiving the incentive package had been changed once again to Pyrite LLC.

Shortly thereafter, a newly formed entity named Maguro Enterprises LLC paid $17 million for 520 acres in the industrial park.

County Councilman William E. Crosby told the Business Journal that Maguro and Pyrite, the latter of which is the proper name for the mineral known as “fool’s gold,” are in fact one and the same.

“While the changing names might be confusing, in actuality what transpired is very straightforward and typical of an economic development deal intended to bring a new employer to the area,” Crosby said.

“In this case, the company that doesn’t want its identity revealed established an entity, Maguro, to simply purchase the land; it’s kind of like someone hiring a Realtor and having the land transaction carried out in the Realtor’s name. However, we’re not giving the incentive package to Maguro … we’re giving it to the company whose name can’t be revealed, so for the sake of the authorizing the package, the state and the supervisor and whoever else decided it would be called ‘Pyrite.’

“It’s an industry in which competition is fierce,” Crosby said of the secrecy. “It’s like Lowe’s and Home Depot, neither wants the other guy to have any idea what they’re doing.”

What does all this have to do with Google?

While secrecy is paramount to almost all economic development deals, at least until all the parties agree to talk, Google’s reputation for its lack of transparency to the outside world is almost legendary.

In this case, however, company precedent may help pierce the veil.

Two years ago, Google purchased land on the banks of the Columbia River outside The Dalles, Ore., and proceeded to build a facility replete with two computing centers, each of which was the size of a football field, according to an article in The New York Times.

Throughout the development of the project the company insisted local officials refer to it only as “Project 02,” and as recently as June, when the Times article appeared, officials including the city manager and city attorney declined to comment on who had built the facilities, citing confidentiality agreements.

Even after the buildings opened, the local chamber of commerce was rebuffed in its efforts to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to welcome the region’s newest large employer.

Rozier said such secrecy is perfectly understandable in the highly competitive world of high tech.

“It’s an industry where you never want the competition to know what you’re up to, that’s the edge they all rely on, and that’s why I’d never dream of violating our confidentiality agreement with the company we’re working with, “ he said. “If I did that, Berkeley County might never get another shot like it has now.”

Google’s requirements

History also explains why a Google or Yahoo or Microsoft would chose a location like Berkeley County for a new data center.

When the company formerly announced its intention to build a facility bringing 600 new engineering and support jobs to Arizona last year, Google senior director Douglas Merrill said the company wasn’t merely interested in what incentives it could garner, but rather had decided on a location rich in colleges and universities, and a on place known for its quality of life.

Both descriptions easily apply to the Lowcountry.

Crosby said as part of the incentive package, the company will pay a fee-in-lieu of property taxes.

Under current state guidelines, any company that invests at least $5 million in a new plant or expansion in South Carolina may negotiate with the county in which it is locating to pay a flat fee instead of the full amount of property taxes due.

The fee, which is negotiated for 20-year terms, can go as low as 6% of the assessed value of the property, as opposed to the 10.5% the company would normally pay, Crosby said.

The fee-in-lieu agreement also allows the company to lock into the current millage rate for 20 years.

Crosby didn’t know the exact details of the incentive package he voted to approve, citing a longstanding practice in Berkeley County of the supervisor being given free reign to work out economic development deals in collaboration with the state Department of Commerce, the Charleston Regional Development Alliance and the county’s economic development staff, he said.

However, he did say that he wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t similar to the package provided to Nucor Steel in 1995 when it announced it would build a facility in Berkeley County to produce hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheet steel.

According to a report prepared by the American Institute for International Steel Inc., an industry association and lobbying group, Nucor’s incentives included a 30-year cut in state property taxes, an investment tax credit and exemption from state sales tax on building materials.

Crosby said the Nucor deal contained considerable incentives not only because the company would employ hundreds, but also because several of Nucor’s suppliers were also expected to open facilities in the area.

The question now is, what sort of facility might the Internet search engine giant—a company analyst Rector described as “the U.S. Steel of (his) generation”—be bringing here in return.

“The problem with trying to describe what a Google data center might be like in Charleston is that there are no hard and fast metrics on them,” Rector said. “Projects like this were hush-hush to begin with, and since 9/11 they’ve been even more so,” Rector said.

The best he said he could offer was a generalized description.

“I think the best way to describe a data center would be to say that they are basically big server farms with facilities near by to house diesel generators in case their main source of power goes down,” Rector said. “In fact, it’s entirely possible that they are located near water, as was the case in Oregon and as sounds like the case near Charleston, so that they can generate at least some power of their own, lowering their power costs.

“One thing is certain,” Rector added. “If a data center is in fact coming your way, they are going to need a lot of brainpower, and that should really help bolster the region’s high-tech sector.”

Significant competition

But if the land purchase in the Mount Holly Commerce Park would seem to make Google’s entry into the Lowcountry a done deal, other developments cast the situation very much in doubt.

On Dec. 28, North Carolina officials approval a $4.8 million “Job Development Investment Grant” for Google should the company locate its server farm in Lenior, N.C.

In published reports, Deborah Barnes, a spokeswoman for the state’s commerce department, said the state is very hopeful the company would choose North Carolina.

“Offering the grant was a major hurdle that (Google) needed,” Barnes told the News and Observer in Raleigh.

North Carolina has been pressing hard to lure high-tech companies in recent months. Last summer, its General Assembly extended sales-tax cuts to apply to electricity and equipment for Internet companies.

Officials there believe Lenior is particularly attractive because it used to be the center of a now-languishing furniture manufacturing industry, and as a result, has a robust but largely untapped power grid that could be used to Google’s advantage.

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

Lindsay Danzell contributed to this report.