ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, Sept. 14, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Facebook has chosen a New Mexico location for its new data center after Utah officials’ hesitation to give competitive tax incentives.
New Mexico’s U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich announced the news Wednesday morning. Facebook will build its data center in Los Lunas, just south of Albuquerque.
Facebook, then represented as Discus, had been in negotiations with the city of West Jordan about building there. The deal fell apart in August after some area leaders balked at the high cost of incentives and tax breaks required to entice Facebook to build in Utah.
Los Lunas reportedly agreed to waive property taxes for 30 years in exchange for annual payments from Facebook, ranging from $50,000 to nearly $500,000. The agreement also included tax breaks on computer equipment.
After West Jordan found financial support lacking, it terminated negotiations on Aug. 23, and posted a notice on Facebook:
“Effective immediately, all negotiations between the company known as Discus and the city of West Jordan are hereby terminated,” the prepared statement read. “Any and all incentives and inducements preliminary offered the company to locate in West Jordan are hereby rescinded in whole without prejudice.”
The next day, West Jordan returned to its Facebook page to post the reversal:
“This is too good of an opportunity for Utah to pass up, so we have been working throughout the night and will continue through the day to keep the project alive.”
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert stated recently that the social media giant’s negotiations with Utah seemed to have gone dormant.
