Sam Oliver
Prying eyes have again taken to the skies to get a glimpse at what's next for Apple, this time visiting the location for the company's new data center in Prineville, Ore.
Aerial shots of Apple's Oregon data center site captured by Wired.
Aerial photographs of Apple's new server farm were commissioned by Wired, showing just how close the facility is to an existing data center owned by social networking giant Facebook. The publication said it was "forced" to get aerial shots of the facility because Apple has not opened its doors to reporters.
The photos show the "tactical data center" that the company finished building earlier this year. To the south of that smaller building, Apple's 338,000-square-foot data center remains in construction.
Apple has plans to build a second data center of the same size, but there is currently no evidence that construction on that facility has begun.
Facebook also has two data centers in Prineville, and one of them has been operational for a year now, while the second center is in the final stages of completion.
Companies like Apple and Facebook have chosen Prineville because local governments have offered incentives. Apple will pay the Prineville city and Crook County governments $150,000 a year in return for a 15-year property tax exemption, an dhas promised to employ a minimum of 35 people at the center who will be paid wages up to 150 percent higher than the Crook County average.
Wired previously commissioned aerial photographs of Apple's other major data center in Maiden, N.C., which currently helps power the company's online services, including iCloud and iTunes. The company has referred to its overhead photos as being captured from its "iSpy plane."
Wesley Hilliard
Marko Zivkovic
Malcolm Owen
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
16 Comments
Keep your friends close…
Gosh dang it, they have snow. I want snow.
It's sickening how Apple is getting away with grand theft with the property taxes on their Oregon data center. Oregon's property tax rate for the rest of us is .0056980%. Assuming a lowball appraised value on the center of $1 billion, which is what their N.C. center cost to build (but less than its appraisal value would be), Apple should be paying $5,698,000 in property taxes annually. And they got away with only having to pay $150,000 in exchange for creating a mere 35 jobs??? You have to be kidding me! The government officials who agreed to this criminal deal should be hung up by their thumbs.
It's sickening how Apple is getting away with grand theft with the property taxes on their Oregon data center¡
Fixed that for you.
Actually, the companies would probably locate data centers here in OR even without the incentives, because cheap hydro means their power costs are lower than they would be elsewhere.
We have so much renewable-sourced power in particular that we're trying to get CA to buy it from us. Current CA law restricts purchase of renewables to CA-based companies, even though it would cost more for them to generate it than it would for OR-based firms.
[quote name="popnfresh" url="/t/154873/aerial-photos-offer-overhead-look-at-apples-oregon-data-center-site#post_2243123"]It's sickening how Apple is getting away with grand theft with the property taxes on their Oregon data center. Oregon's property tax rate for the rest of us is .0056980%. Assuming a lowball appraised value on the center of $1 billion, which is what their N.C. center cost to build (but less than its appraisal value would be), Apple should be paying $5,698,000 in property taxes annually. And they got away with only having to pay $150,000 in exchange for creating a mere 35 jobs??? You have to be kidding me! The government officials who agreed to this criminal deal should be hung up by their thumbs.[/quote] 1) Where did you get a value for that property? 2) Apple should be paying what is required by law. What you are asking for is that a company that could have easily set up no DC in that city, county, state to pay the same as someone who has a small piece of property. Do you complain when bulk items at CostCo cost you less per items than single serving item at 7-11? Did you consider that Apple would not have added any revenue to that city, county, state if they were required to pay the same property tax for someone with a $15,000 lot because they would have set up in a different state?