Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
January 11, 2007 issue
NC Department of Commerce Awards Job Development Incentive Grant to Internet Search Engine Giant
Story by Sam Calhoun
Putting to rest nearly a year of rumors, Internet search engine giant Google confirmed on Thursday, December 28, that the company is negotiating with Caldwell County and the City of Lenoir to build a data-technology facility in the Overlook Drive area of southwest Lenoir, just off Highway 18.
The deal is still in negotiation, but if it is successful would result in one of the largest economic investments in western North Carolina in many years.
On December 28, at a meeting of the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee, the five committee members in charge of allocating Jobs Development Incentive Grants (JDIGs) awarded Madras Integration, LLC—an entity of Google—a JDIG for up to $4.8 million apportioned over a 12-year period.
According to North Carolina Department of Commerce Public Information Officer Deborah Barnes, to obtain the maximum amount of the grant, Google must first accept the grant and then meet three criteria over a period of 12 years.
First, Google must create 210 jobs over a period of four years. Second, Google must invest up to $600 million in the community in terms of merchandise, equipment, real estate and the like. Third, Google must pay an average wage per worker of $48,300.
Barnes said that the North Carolina Department of Commerce approved the JDIG to try to induce Madras Integration, LLC, or Google, to come to the area to create more jobs. The area has been hard hit in recent years by the loss of furniture- and textile-related jobs. Barnes said that a JDIG is money created by new jobs. The grant isn’t a set dollar amount but basically equals 75 percent of the personal state withholdings taxes derived from the creation of new jobs.
According to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, the proposed investment by Google is the largest by a company since the JDIG program began in 2003.
Other incentives are also possible for Google if the company accepts the offer.
According to Barnes, Google potentially could be eligible for tax credits from the State of North Carolina.
“But first we have to know if they are coming and if they qualify,” said Barnes.
According to Paul Teague, staff writer for the Lenoir News-Topic, both Caldwell County and the City of Lenoir have also offered economic incentives to Google if the company chooses to build the data-technology facility. Both Caldwell County and Lenoir have offered Google a grant for 100 percent of business property taxes for 30 years and a grant for 80 percent of real estate property taxes for 30 years. The city is also offering economic incentives related to providing water service to the company. Details of those incentives have not been revealed.
Concerning what operations might take place at the proposed facility, Barnes has been told that the facility would support Google’s operations.
Commenting on the vague nature of that statement, she added, “It’s still a project in negotiations so they’re not talking about it.”
“We’ve made our offer and we’re waiting to hear if they accept it,” said Barnes.
Part of the deal includes a $3 million payment from Google to Caldwell County and the City of Lenoir—$1.5 million to the county and $1.5 million to the city—to cover the cost related to the closure of a 5.2-mile section of the Caldwell County Railroad, said Teague.
According to Teague, a 20-mile stretch of railroad runs through Lenoir and is owned by the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission (CCEDC)—a nonprofit entity. The CCEDC leases the railroad for others to manage. Teague said that the terminus of that railroad runs through the proposed development, butting up against the Sealed Air Corporation—a packaging company—facility. Because the proposed development would close this 5.2-mile stretch of railroad that the Sealed Air Corporation uses for transporting materials, the $3 million payment from Google would help construct an off-load facility for Sealed Air Corporation where materials would be trucked to the site as opposed to arriving by railcar.
Teague also confirmed that the proposed development site is 210 acres and was purchased in parcels during the summer and fall of 2006 by the Caldwell Economic Development Commission, LLC on behalf of Tapaha Dynamics, LLC—another entity of Google. Tapaha Dynamics, LLC fronted the money to make the land acquisitions.
“We’re hoping to hear something, one way or another, but by all indicators, things look pretty good,” Teague said.
North Carolina Governor Mike Easley released a statement concerning the JDIG grant offer on December 28: “The state has made a good offer and we hope Google will accept it and decide to locate their facility in North Carolina. This company would provide the kind of good-paying, knowledge-based jobs that North Carolina citizens want. In addition, this kind of investment in Caldwell County would help reinvigorate an area hard hit in the past by the loss of textile jobs.”
$483.56—Price for a share of Google Inc. stock that is traded on the NASDAQ under the name GOOG, during the day on Tuesday, January 9.
$2.69 billion—Google Inc.’s reported revenues for the third quarter of 2006
380 million—Global unique users per month
1—Google is the top search engine in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.
5—Google.com is one of the five most popular sites on the Internet.
-Google's name is a play on the word googol that refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.
-Google started as a research project at Stanford University, created by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 and 23 years old respectively.
-Google's index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising of billions of web pages. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a second.
-Google receives daily search requests from all over the world, including Antarctica.
-Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages, including Chinese, Greek, Icelandic, Hebrew, Hungarian and Estonian.
-Google has a staff of more than 9,300 employees known as Googlers.
-The company headquarters is called the Googleplex.
-Google translates billions of HTML web pages into a display format for WAP and i-mode phones and wireless handheld devices, and has made it possible to enter a search using only one phone pad keystroke per letter, instead of multiple keystrokes.
-Google Groups includes more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation.
-The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank. It assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that's not why it's called PageRank. It's actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
-Googlers are multifaceted. One operations manager, who keeps the Google network in good health, is a former neurosurgeon. One software engineer is a former rocket scientist. And the company's chef formerly prepared meals for members of The Grateful Dead and George Clinton