Becker Still Working On Google Data Center, Need Bonding Money

BECKER -- Becker city leaders are still working hard on bringing a Google Data Center to their community, however, it may come down to state lawmakers for the $600 million project to become a reality.

Community Development Director Marie Pflipsen says they will be asking the state for nearly $25 million in next year's bonding bill to help make sewer and water upgrades to their industrial park. She says they have a strong case because of the statewide impact the data center will have.

They'll take approximately 2,300 construction jobs just to build this facility, so this will be a huge boom for central Minnesota it's not Becker only.  Once it is up and running those 50 jobs actually means 110 jobs locally when you start looking at the restaurants and housing and attracting people.

The Minnesota House Capital Investment Committee will be touring the project on Friday, September 6th.

In the meantime, Pflipsen says the city has been working on completing the Environmental Review Process and their zoning rules for defining what a data center is.

She says while things continue to look good we probably won't know if it is a done deal until after next year's state legislative session.

Pflipsen says the city and county agreeing to tax abatements for the company was a big step forward, but it is likely we're not the only region competing for the big project.

Our best bet is we are one of multiple facilities being looked at.  But, we know they have multiple sites across the nation and the world already.  With business growth you generally have multiple sites, so we anticipate being one of those multiple sites.

Meanwhile, Northern Metal and Recycling is already working on their new facility in Becker's industrial park, and if the Northstar Commuter Train does eventually get extended Becker is planning on it stopping in their community as well.