Google, Xcel partner on $600M data center.

Byline: William Morris

A $600 million Google Inc. data center could be just the start of an economic development explosion for Becker, Minnesota.

The central Minnesota city will host the Mountain View, California-based internet giant's latest mammoth data center under a proposal unveiled Thursday by Xcel Energy. Xcel is selling 315 acres of land next to the Sherburne County Generating Station, better known as Sherco, and is committing to supplying 300 megawatts of wind energy to power the project, according to documents filed with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

The project represents a huge investment for Becker, with fewer than 5,000 residents. The project will create nearly 2,000 construction jobs in Sherburne County and 1,300 more around the state, and 50 permanent jobs paying a total of more than $4 million per year when complete, according to a state analysis.

Google's data center is expected to generate $11 million to $12 million in state tax revenue during construction, and $600,000 annually once in operation, said Shane Delaney, a spokesperson for the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. It is not yet known what the tax impact will be for Becker and Sherburne County, Becker Mayor Tracy Bertram said in an email.

That investment could be just the start. Xcel's filing notes "the site certainly has room for more than one facility," should Google choose to expand in the future. There's also the hope for other companies to follow in Google's footsteps. In North Carolina, Iowa, Alabama and elsewhere, Google data center projects have been followed by more data centers for Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and other major tech companies.

Does that mean there's going to be a data center land rush in Becker?

"There very well could be," said Dan Peterson, a vice president with Colliers in Minneapolis and a member of the company's data centers practice. "We've seen that happen in other parts of the country, where one corporate-scale data center project lands and others follow."

A Google data center not only creates an established workforce, but shows that local officials are willing and able to work with companies on similar projects, Peterson said.

"If one has vetted and qualified a certain site, then others have a few steps taken care of along the way," Peterson said. "The municipalities, the utilities have all been veered in a direction to receive a project like this, so others have a pathway provided."

Xcel certainly...