Area Development
CBRE reports on the role of incentives in data center site selection in a recent report. Incentives are critical in the location decision, writes study author John Lenio. But taxes and incentives often enter the picture late in the decision process. Prime site selection factors for data centers, such as environment and weather and overall power costs, still come first.

But approximately 12 states have incentives just for data centers. North Carolina reduces sales taxes on equipment to 1 percent (down from the usual 5.75 percent) until 2015. And Oklahoma offers full sales tax exemption on equipment for qualified data centers. This exemption currently has no expiration.

States also use taxes to attract data centers. Full exemptions of certain taxes are offered by Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.