Dell starts data center construction

QUINCY - Restaurants and hotels in Grant County are seeing added business from the current construction projects in both Quincy and Moses Lake.

Dell is building a data center in Quincy and just started moving dirt, said Pat Boss, the Port of Quincy's government affairs director, this week.

"Clearly they started off in a fairly big way," he commented. "It looks like they're moving ahead on a large scale project."

More recently, construction workers on the new project began staying in the area. 

Above Crescent Bar Island, the condos are full and many other hotels are filled, he said. 

He believes Wenatchee and Moses Lake businesses are also seeing an uptick in customers.

With Dell and Sabey just barely starting their data center work, Grant County businesses are likely to see bigger impacts as the projects get into gear, Boss explained.

Quincy Mayor Jim Hemberry said there has been a positive impact with the town's data center construction, but nothing like it was when Yahoo!, Microsoft and Intuit were building simultaneously.

Business has picked up quite a bit at the Quincy Subway shop with more construction workers buying meals, said the store's Manager Whitney Ward.

Dell's construction workers are renting rooms at The Sundowner Motel, said motel owner David Kim.

Before that, Kim's business had customers from Yahoo! and Microsoft's construction.

At Zack's Pizza in Quincy, lunches seem busier with more customers, as well as in the evenings in the bar area of the business, said employee Erin Omlin.

In Moses Lake, AmeriStay general Manager Troy Duzon said he is extremely busy because of work going on at REC Silicon and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers, which are both Moses Lake projects.

"I can't speak directly to Dell, but I can say business is really good because of construction in the area," Duzon said. 

Boss, of the Port of Quincy, pointed out how the data center construction was due to a state tax incentive approved last year.

Boss said the various companies, Dell, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Sabey wouldn't have gone forward if it had not been for the state's tax incentive for data centers.

"There's now a project in Moses Lake that expanded as well," he said, referring to the Titan building. "You literally have five projects in Grant County."

In Moses Lake, the Titan facility finishes the first 10,000 square feet for a server farm in May, according to a recent Data Center Knowledge article, which quoted Red Sea Group CEO Avner Papouchado.

Red Sea Group owns the Titan building.

He estimated the various construction projects totaled more than $1 billion in new construction revenue.

A bill extending the tax break for another year is technically alive in Olympia, he said.

"I know there's a lot of work being done to move that forward and extend it another year," Boss commented. "If the tax incentive was in place I think you would see other projects come to the region."