Catawba County ripe for Apple

Catawba County's efforts to land a data center similar to the Google complex near Lenoir could come to fruition with Apple.

North Carolina lawmakers are pushing to give a company thought to be California-based Apple Inc. a multi-million dollar tax break if the company brings an East Coast computer server farm to the state.

The company would be expected to spend at least $1 billion in North Carolina over nine years, and locate the server farm in one of the state's most economically distressed counties.

Catawba and Cleveland counties are thought to be the two primary candidates. Catawba County's unemployment rate was 15 percent in April. Cleveland's was 15.1 percent.

Fewer than 100 full-time workers would be employed at the server farm initially, but the number of jobs could grow.

A bill already approved by the N.C. Senate and House and now headed for the governor's desk would change the way corporate income taxes are calculated.

The changes would give tax breaks to companies with a relatively small share of U.S. sales in North Carolina but which have large shares of their nationwide property and payroll in the state.

The bill is said to be explicitly aimed at luring the Apple server farm to the state. It could in theory save the company $46 million over 10 years.

The project would only qualify for the tax break if it were located in one of the poorer regions of North Carolina. The company must also provide health insurance, meet an unspecified "wage standard," and agree to declare itself ineligible for other tax breaks and grants from the state.

The aim is to help curb unemployment.

A state official with knowledge of the recruitment efforts told The Associated Press that Apple is the targeted company. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the state's recruitment efforts are confidential.

Spokeswomen for Apple and the state Commerce Department, the lead agency in business development, declined to comment when contacted by the Hickory Daily Record.

Scott Millar, president of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp., said the EDC has "several potential projects out there, but we don't have anyone on the hook."

Millar would not confirm that Apple is one of the potential projects, but said it could be.

Catawba County has two sites near Maiden that are suitable for a data center, and has been marketing them for that purpose, Millar said.

"I don't know of any other county in the state that is marketing as directly to that segment at we are," Millar said.

The 183-acre WestStar Mission Critical Business Park is being developed off Startown Road near its intersection with U.S. 321.

The other site is a former Carolina Mills building with up to 100 acres.

The bill received the support of N.C. Sen. Austin Allran (R-Catawba and Iredell) and Reps. Mark Hilton (R-Catawba), Mitchell Setzer (R-Catawba and Iredell) and Ray Warren (D-Alexander and Catawba).
"I supported it fully," Warren said.

"This is certainly a time when economic development is an important matter for us to consider and support."

Some legislators criticized the bill.

"What this bill says is if somebody brings us enough money we'll change the law for them," said Rep. Johnathan Rhyne, R-Lincoln.

"This kind of legislation is unseemly at a minimum and in a worst-case scenario amounts to selling ourselves."

Millar said offering incentives is a must in today's economy.

"It's an easy thing to oppose on purely ideological terms," Millar said.

"But the reality is that when a company is going to make a multi-million dollar investment, states are going to compete for that.

"You've got to be ready to fight for it."

State and local governments offered Google an incentive package worth up to $260 million over 30 years, one of the largest incentives packages in state history, to land the Caldwell County data complex.

If the Apple project also remained active for 30 years, its server farm could save more than $300 million on its corporate taxes, based on legislative staffers' estimates.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.