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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Switch Plans Supernap Data Center In Gaines Township, Michigan

12/17/2015
Switch, a transformational technology idea engine corporation, will establish its new $5 billion SUPERNAP data center in greater Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The new SUPERNAP data center will be located at the former Steelcase Pyramid in Gaines Township, establishing the beginning of a 2 million square-foot state-of-the-art, high-tech campus in West Michigan.

The project will create jobs for over 1,000 IT professionals at the site. According to SUPERNAP, Michigan will be the largest data center campus in the eastern U.S. and will serve the company’s current clients in geographic redundancy and new clients with national connectivity.

“Today, Michigan not only welcomes Switch, it welcomes an entire industry to the state,” said Birgit Klohs, President/CEO, The Right Place, Inc. “I often remind our partners in the region that economic development is a team sport. This project epitomizes this. Without the assistance and support of countless elected officials, business and community leaders, Switch would not be coming to West Michigan.”

The firm’s decision comes after legislation approved by both the Michigan House and Senate and submitted to Governor Rick Snyder for signature that will allow the state to compete for the attraction of future high-tech companies, officials from Right Place, a non-profit economic development organization, said.

Senate Bills 616 and 617 exempt all data centers and co-located businesses from the sales and use tax on data center equipment for 20 years. The legislation applies specifically to those companies in which data centers operations are the primary source of business, generating 75% or more of its revenue from the operation and business of a data center. The legislation no longer includes a personal property tax abatement, as local communities currently have the ability to exempt taxes on a business per local review.

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