Data center has eye on Garner

A Research Triangle Park company is in negotiations to invest $60 million in a new data center in a Garner industrial park.

Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said the economic development project was discussed by the Town Council in a closed session Thursday evening. Williams said the town has not been told the identity of the company.

Boston-based Fidelity Investments, which operates a data center in RTP, confirmed Friday that it is considering expanding its operations.

"Fidelity is planning for incremental growth beyond the capacity we have at our existing data center facility," Fidelity spokesman Vincent Loporchio wrote in e-mail. "Beyond that, however, we do not have anything to announce at this point."

Williams said Wake County economic development officials have code named the project "F," and have told Garner officials that the company has an existing presence in RTP.

Ken Atkins, executive director of Wake County Economic Development, declined to comment.

Williams said the company is looking at the Greenfield South industrial park near where U.S. 70 and Interstate 40 intersect. He said the Town Council has been told the project would create between 20 to 35 jobs and would be a $60 million investment.

Williams said the Town Council has not voted on an incentives package for the company, but it has instructed Garner's economic development director, Tony Beasley, to continue negotiating.

Fidelity made a huge splash in 2006 when it announced that it would create 2,000 local jobs and build a campus on 268 acres in the Wake County portion of RTP. The company received state and local incentives that could end up totaling as much as $69 million.

Fidelity employs about 2,400 people in the Triangle. It leases office space in RTP in addition to operating its data center.

The company delayed building a campus on its RTP land when the economy began to deteriorate.

Loporchio said the company has no timetable for when it might move forward with a new campus.

"We are continuing to evaluate our needs in this area," he said.

Development deadlines imposed by RTP gave Fidelity until the end of 2009 to begin construction. But Rick Weddle, president of the Research Triangle Foundation that runs RTP, said Fidelity has been given a three-year extension.

"We think they're as committed as they were in the beginning and it's just a matter of us giving them a little bit of extra time to work through the process," Weddle said.

Fidelity's expansion plans are the latest sign that the Triangle is an attractive place to build a data center. Data storage company EMC is now building a $280million data center in Durham County.

EMC said cheap electricity was one of the reasons the company chose to build in the Triangle.

Staff writer Sarah Nagem contributed to this report.