Facebook owner Meta Platforms revealed as company eyeing El Paso for $800M data center
City and El Paso County offer Meta Platforms $110M in tax incentives to locate huge data center in Northeast El Paso The name of Meta Platforms Inc., the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp social media platforms, was revealed when the El Paso City Council and El Paso County Commissioners Court approved $110 million in incentives to secure a $800 million data center in Northeast El Paso. The incentives were provided in the form of property tax rebates over 25 years. The city plans to sell 1,039 acres of land to Meta for the data center campus for $8.5 million, and the final vote on a sale agreement is set to take on the property on Tuesday. This would be Meta's 19th data centercampus worldwide.
ที่ตีพิมพ์ : 5 เดือนที่ผ่านมา โดย Vic Kolenc ใน Business Tech
Meta Platforms Inc., the company that operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp social media platforms and other enterprises is the company looking at possibly putting a huge $800 million data center in Northeast El Paso.
The company's name was revealed Monday when the El Paso City Council and El Paso County Commissioners Court approved providing up to $110 million in incentives, almost all of those in the form of property tax rebates over 25 years, to get the company to locate the data center here.
In late November, City Council took initial actions to try to sell 1,039 acres of city land for the center. Meta used Wurldwide LLC, a company it formed, to handle the El Paso data land acquisition and city and county economic development agreements.
"Meta is a huge name in the IT (Information Technology) sector. This really puts El Paso on the map, and creates a broader technological ecosystem" in El Paso, Elizabeth Triggs, the city economic development director, told the City Council Monday.
El Paso is competing with other cities for the data center, Triggs said after the meeting. But the incentives and other actions the City Council took Monday keep El Paso in the running, she said. And the fact that Meta allowed its name to be released after the incentives were approved is a good sign, she said.
The city wants to sell 1,039 acres of land to Meta for the data center campus for $8.5 million. The City Council is to take the final vote Tuesday on authorizing a sale agreement for the property. Meta would have until April 2024 to buy the land, with possible extensions.
The vast expanse of desert land is located along a little-used portion of Stan Roberts Sr. Avenue, and just off of U.S. Highway 54 – not far from the New Mexico state line.
Meta would only be obligated to do an $800 million hyperscale data center project under the economic development agreement with the city, Triggs said. But it's likely Meta would build a much larger campus as it has done elsewhere, she said.
This would be Meta's 19th data center campus worldwide, she said.
Meta representatives were not at the city or county meetings Monday. And Meta officials did not immediately respond to an El Paso Times request for comments about the proposed project.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; [email protected]; @vickolenc on Twitter, now known as X.
หัวข้อ: Texas, Facebook, El Paso, Meta, Social Media