DATA CENTERS. Presented by: Omar Garcia SAEDF Vice President

Transcription

1 DATA CENTERS Presented by: Omar Garcia SAEDF Vice President

2 SAN ANTONIO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION (SAEDF) SAEDF s role is to position San Antonio in the national and international business community as a premiere business location for targeted industries. Over the last five years, SAEDF has locate 91 companies and created over 22,000 new jobs. 2

3 SAN ANTONIO 7 th largest city in the U.S. Population of over 1.3M Cost of living is 6.9% below national average Labor force of nearly 1 Million in million the San Antonio MS 14 local colleges and universities with over 120,000 students enrolled Business friendly climate 3

4 SAN ANTONIO DATA CENTERS Microsoft established San Antonio s first data center in 2007 San Antonio is home to over 12 data centers Example of companies include: Lowes, Hartford, Chevron, Valero, Rackspace and the Capital Group SAEDF is currently working 3 active data centers projects 4

5 Why are Data Centers Good for San Antonio? Expand Tax Base High-Quality Jobs $79,564 Avg. Wage in Data Center Industry vs. $46,742 Avg. Wage Across All Industries Strengthen Regional IT & Electric Utility Infrastructure Area School Districts New Data Center In San Antonio Leverage existing base Electrical/HVAC Maintenance Facility/Building Services Small Business Growth & Corporate Attraction IT Services Corporate Operations Positive Technology Image

6 Benefits Provided by Data Centers ECONOMIC AND FISCAL BENEFITS Expansion of local tax base High paying jobs Increased spending from visitors Minimal cost to local governments for service provision (roads, police, fire, schools, parks, etc.) Co-location data centers generate a higher amount of capital investment and jobs INFRASTRUCTURE AND MARKETING BENEFITS Stronger electric utility infrastructure Stronger information technology infrastructure Expansion of regional information technology workforce High-volume customers of public utilities Improved branding and name recognition as a high-tech region

7 Strongest Assets: Large existing cluster of enterprise data centers and back office support facilities in Westover Hills Growing role as one of most important IT and cyber security regions for U.S. government and the military, including unique assets such as UTSA Institute for Cyber Security San Antonio s Assets Infrastructure Assets/Cost Advantages: Relatively low-cost electricity Recycled grey water from SAWS Strong IT and electrical infrastructure Overall low natural disaster risk Relatively low land/labor costs Large existing IT workforce Market Access/Unique Strengths: Fiber connectivity from national ISPs Major corporate headquarters and U.S. government/military facilities Proximity to Mexico Microsoft mega data center and Rackspace HQ Overall high quality of life CPS Energy is a leader in renewable energy Texas is leading wind energy producer

8 San Antonio s Challenges Westover Hills only has a handful of remaining properties that are suitable for large data centers and a second data center cluster has yet to emerge in the region Geographic distribution of existing property tax abatement zones effectively discourages data centers in some prime data center locations Electricity rates are competitive, but higher than some key competitors outside of Texas Limited amount of co-location data centers in San Antonio could create a negative image of San Antonio as a location for potential data centers Warm climate makes cooling of data center equipment more expensive

9 Positives: Explicitly exempts data centers from minimum employment requirements Data centers fall within targeted industry (IT & Cyber Security) Promotes development in Brooks City-Base Generally clear and easy to understand policy requirements Flexibility to provide greater incentives for high-profile projects Evaluation of Incentives Negatives: Incentives give impression of leaving little room for flexibility Fewer incentives available in several prime data center locations Lack of consensus for use of incentives among City of San Antonio, Bexar County, school districts, and general public Inconsistent use of incentives for data center projects May lead officials to underincentivize data center projects

10 Priority Recommendations Create new data center districts, ensuring that adequate infrastructure is in place over the long-term Encourage the development of data centers at Brooks City-Base, leveraging its unique tax-exempt status Establish an incentive policy that is specifically tailored to data centers and is uniform throughout Bexar County Proactively market San Antonio as an ideal location for federal government data center consolidation and new data centers that serve Latin American markets, particularly Mexico Recognize and promote the benefits of data centers and aggressively pursue new data center development