Meta data center ‘very significant’ for River Ridge
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe executive director of the River Ridge Development Authority says last week’s announcement that the parent of Facebook plans to establish a data center campus represents a turning point for the River Ridge Commerce Center.
Meta said it would invest $800 million to build the data center and create 100 jobs at the business and industrial park in Jeffersonville.
Jerry Acy said bringing in one of the biggest tech companies in the world to River Ridge is “very significant” and could bringing in more business.
Acy told Inside INdiana Business Host Gerry Dick that River Ridge has been working on attracting high-tech companies to the business park for quite some time.
“If you’re going to land a high-tech company, I would say this is one of the premier ones that you would like to have in your backyard,” he said. “And we feel like as a result, it will get a lot of attention from other technology-related companies as well.”
Acy said when it comes to economic development, business attraction efforts can sometimes create clusters, which he feels could be a possibility at River Ridge.
“Usually, when you have a cluster, you have a big fish in the pond first, and then you might have smaller related type companies that would come in in close proximity to it,” he said. “So we would anticipate potentially suppliers and contractors and other potential similar type providers that would tend to look at [us]. We’ll get more looks, I can assure you that.”
Brad Davis, director of data center community and economic development at Meta, told IIB last week that projects such as this have a tendency to create certain positive supply chain impacts.
“We have seen circumstances in the past where suppliers, vendors, etc. will locate nearby in order to serve this type of activity, and there is somewhat of a ‘follow the leader’ effect as well,” he said. “When Meta locates in an area, it’s not shocking to see other large hyperscale data centers follow suit as a result of the robust process that we go through and ultimately evaluating locations.”
The Meta deal was several years in the making, Acy said, with site visits from the company and its consultants meeting with representatives from the Jeffersonville mayor’s office, the local wastewater treatment plant, utility companies and the Indiana Economic Development Corp. among others.
Acy said the data center project complements an already diverse business portfolio within River Ridge.
“We have a really good mix of industrial sectors already at River Ridge, everything from pharmaceutical to automotive to food processing, and typical warehouse distribution,” he said. “So this is really the next big step in the technology arena, and so we’re really proud of that and look forward to having that avenue available for us.”
In 2019, the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill creating exemptions from the state’s sales tax on purchases of qualifying data center equipment and energy. Acy said without those incentives, River Ridge might not have gotten as much attention as it has.