South Carolina lands Google site similar to Lenoir's

200 jobs planned near Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- While North Carolina recruiters were trying to lure Google with one of the most generous incentives offers in state history, there was widespread speculation that the company also was considering a site in South Carolina.

On Wednesday, the Internet company confirmed that the machines and workers at a 520-acre industrial site northwest of Charleston are part of a $600 million investment that will create 200 jobs.

The size and type of the operation that Google plans in Berkeley County is similar to what the company has described for Lenoir, about 70 miles north of Charlotte, in Caldwell County.

The incentives package that North Carolina and local governments committed to Google in February has sparked criticism among some legislators of the state's recruiting practices. Estimates of the package range to $260 million over 30 years.

The total value of state and local incentives attached to the South Carolina deal is unclear. The state has granted Google the ability to earn tax credits that are tied to capital investment and to the number of jobs a company creates and maintains. The company also will not be taxed on electricity and capital expenditures on equipment.

The state said on its Web site that Google will get subsidies of about $4.8 million over 10 years if the project meets investment and job targets.

Google also is looking at a site for another server farm near Blythewood on the outskirts of Columbia, but wetlands there pose a problem, the company said.

The Charleston data center, sometimes called a server farm, will initially have two buildings with dozens of computers that will be part of the company's worldwide network to handle Internet traffic.

Google hopes to have the first servers on line by year's end. The entire center should be operating within 18 months, said Rhett Weiss, the company's senior team leader for global infrastructure.

The initial investment includes infrastructure that would allow the company to quickly expand if needed.

"We have been very careful to peg that number at a level that we can attain and attain quickly," Weiss said. "It's not that 15 years from now we'll finally get to that $600 million."

The company chose the site because it had water to cool the banks of computers, as well as fiber optic cable connections, Weiss said.

"The fiber optic connection is sort of the modern version of what Charleston traditionally was as port city," Weiss said. "The fiber optic network is sort of the import-export aspect of the project. That's how the information is coming in and out."

The jobs in Charleston will pay about $48,000 yearly plus benefits, the same as announced for Lenoir. The company is already hiring its senior management team, Weiss said.

"Given the stature of this company and the magnitude of this investment, this is a real win for South Carolina and will have a tremendous impact on the local and state economy," Gov. Mark Sanford said in a statement.

"As an industry, South Carolina has shown it wants to promote Web search portals, Internet service providers and that kind of company," Weiss said.

(Bloomberg News contributed to this report.)