Google Project Would Bring Significant Economic Impact to Becker

BECKER -- Sherburne County Officials are weighing whether to approve Google's request for tax breaks to build a $600 million wind-powered data center in Becker.

Google is asking county and city officials for a 20-year tax abatement, which could save the company up to $15-million combined.

Sherburne County Administrator Steve Taylor says while it's ultimately the county board's decision. He feels this would be a no brainer based on the economic impact the project would generate.

So they did ask for a 20-year property tax abatement, that totals about $7.7-million over 20 years, so that's one side of the equation. But if you look at the economic activity that is associated with that over 20 years, we're looking at over $300-million of economic activity.

Sherburne County commissioners will hold a public hearing on the tax abatement request on March 26th.

Taylor says like other states, this facility could be an anchor business to attract other technology companies.

If you look at North Carolina, Alabama, Iowa and some of those states, they'll have 2-4 expansions, and data centers like to be near other data centers. So this is just the start of development of technology companies coming to Becker.

The proposal is currently under review by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The project is estimated to create about 50 tech jobs to the area.