WEST JORDAN, Utah, Aug. 24, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Breaking up was hard to do, so West Jordan will continue courting a proposed data center that will require millions of dollars in tax incentives to locate within city boundaries.
The deal is with Discus, and the data center considering locating in West Jordan — if the deal is good enough — is widely believed to belong to Facebook.
Tuesday’s original announcement, posted, ironically, West Jordan’s Facebook page, said negotiations were off the table.
“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 “Any and all incentives and inducements preliminary offered the company to locate in West Jordan are hereby rescinded in whole without prejudice.”
Plenty of other county and state government entities were against the record-breaking incentive deal, the West Jordan statement said.
On Wednesday, however, 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,” West Jordan’s latest statement said.
“Based on feedback from other cities where Discus has data centers, we know that this company is a generous community partner and an asset wherever they locate. We have been in talks with Discus since the vote, and they are still very interested in coming to West Jordan.
“We appreciate the support of the Governor, State School Board, the Jordan School District, and the Jordan Valley Water District who we have worked with throughout our negotiations. The company is anxious to make a decision, and we are ready to welcome them to our city.”
“While this incentive package was more than those previously offered to other companies wanting to locate in Utah, due to their size, investment ($1.5 billion) and name recognition, it was not competitive enough as compared to incentives offered by the State of New Mexico, who also had been courting this data center project.”
Incentives are part of recruiting top businesses to any state, the statement said.
“If you want to attract an all-star player, you have to offer a competitive package.”
The initial rejection, announced Tuesday came after a Utah State School Board vote that did not fully support the tax increase over a 20-year period to raise a portion of the $350 million incentive.
“Yesterday’s State School Board vote challenged negotiations that were already worked out with a company known as Project Discus,” West Jordan’s newest post said. “The company was not in a position to accept the terms of the School Board’s motion last night. As a result, the City of West Jordan terminated the agreement so that we could start fresh.
What a difference a day makes.
The deal is ridiculous. Every time I see a commercial on TV now talking about slowing the flow I’m going to think “yeah right, not me, there must be oodles of water. It’s all a big lie.