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North Carolina Desperate to Lure Google

posted on January 17, 2007


Yesterday’s print edition of the Raleigh News & Observer has a huge piece on what NC is doing to try and convince Google to build a server farm in Lenoir (which is located in the west of the state).

Lenoir and Caldwell County are in dire straits, especially since they relied heavily on a now defunct furniture industry. It’s so bad there that Caldwell County Economic Development Commission and Duke Energy have bought up 150 acres just in case Google selects Lenoir. In addition, state and local governments are willing to forgo real estate taxes for 30 years, worth $100 million, in a desperate effort to attract the $600 million operation and the 210 related jobs.

While the average salary would be close to $50k a year, most local unemployed residents would need extensive training, just to get invited for an interview. In fact, it’s not so much the jobs created by Google, that the state is going after, but the related jobs and economic investment that would come from having Google in the county.

So come on, Google, why would you even consider South Carolaki? The Appalachians are where all the action is at! ;-)

Link to the edited version of the article.


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  • http://www.sitecreations.com/blog Scott Clark

    Not sure what to make of your winked comment.

    Raleigh has more degreed professionals (in percent of population) than Austin or Atlanta. The top 10 cities, by the way in degreed professionals are here (source: Census, 2005)

    1. Seattle, WA 52.7% $49,297
    2. San Francisco, CA 50.1% $57,496
    3. Raleigh, NC 50.1% $48,131 ****
    4. Washington, DC 45.3% $47,221
    5. Austin, TX 44.1% $43,731
    6. Minneapolis, MN 43.2% $41,829
    7. Atlanta, GA 42.4% $39,752
    8. Boston, MA 40.9% $42,562
    9. San Diego, CA 40.4% $55,637
    10. Lexington, KY 39.5% $42,442 ****

    Then take this list… cross referenced with cost of doing business…Rank (by best first – 2004 numbers from economy.com Inc)

    1. North Carolina *
    2. Kentucky *
    3. Virginia
    4. Indiana
    5. Tennessee
    6. SC
    7. Georgia *

    I’d say Raleigh and Lexington should be stand-outs in any consideration for Google to build a new facility at least considering education and costs of doing business.

    Just my 2c – y’all.

  • http://www.marketingpilgrim.com Andy Beal

    I’m sure everyone in the Triangle would love to have Google in their backyard, but there’s a few reasons why Lenoir is favored over Raleigh.

    1. It’s cheaper.
    2. They have a huge power-grid, left over from all the manufacturing plants.
    3. They can probably get a better tax incentive for picking a poorer county. The Triangle’s hardly hurting for big name tech company’s – IBM, Cisco, Nortel, Cree, Motricity, Red Hat etc.

    As for the winks? You’ll notice I like using them. It’s my “cheeky-monkey” side! ;-) ;-) ;-)

  • rcjordan

    Too bad the Triangle is the arm-pit of NC. It’d take $30M in incentives to get me to relocate there and another $50M on top of that to consider Lenoir or Caldwell.

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  • rcjordan

    >Google + NC BBQ

    Well, if they’re coming for NC BBQ, then the top runners would be Nash, Wilson, or Martin counties. My personal preference is Cherry’s (off 43) but I can’t quite picture a Googleplex in Pinetops.

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  • http://www.artisaninteractive.com ScottW

    I’d also love to see Google join us in Raleigh but you are right that operational costs would be higher and Wake County would never match those tax breaks.

    On the other hand, Raleigh’s number of experienced search marketers per capita is abnormally high. :)

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