Meta spends $60K per acre for farmland

Even with tax rebates, data center means millions for NS schools

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Facebook’s real estate arm paid nearly $60,000 per acre for a 328.7 rural Davenport site that will be home to the social media firm’s latest data center.

A new Facebook data farm will go up on farmed acres that sold for $19.6 million.

The June 26 and 29 sales prices were posted last week on the county assessment records.

The Charlie Keppy Farm LLC sold 147.2 acres on four parcels to the holding company for $8,828,170.

Rivaldd Farms sold five parcels totaling 181.55 acres for $10,733,044. Rivalld officers include Dennis Kay, Virginia Telsrow, of Davenport; Ricky and Randy Kay of Wheatland; and Arland Kay of Oregon, according to the company’s latest filing. Rivaldd asked to be annexed into Davenport in 2023.

Combined, the properties will hold two data centers and support buildings totaling 715,000 square feet, expected to cost at least $800 million, the company said in its development application to the state of Iowa.

The center will bring at least 50 new full-time jobs paying at $28.76 per hour with benefits.

The company promised at least a $420 million assessed valuation for the property now assessed at $960,000.

For comparison, the Amazon warehouse one mile east covers 2.3 million square feet on 158 acres and employees 1,500, according to that company.

The Iowa Department of Economic Development and the city of Davenport granted Meta a 60 percent property tax cut for 20 years, estimated to total $8.06 million per year, or $161 million over two decades.

The remaining 40 percent will boost tax revenue for Davenport, the North Scott School District, Scott County and other taxing districts.

The Iowa Department of Economic Development calculated the company will pay at least $5.376 million in property tax annually, including:

City of Davenport: $2,537,000

Scott County: $900,000

North Scott school district: $1,734,000

Other taxing districts: $205,000

Total - $5,376,000

Renewable energy

Meta has not disclosed any wind or solar energy suppliers for the Davenport plant.

But the company has pledged to power all of its centers with renewable fuels and is contracting for thousands of megawatts generated by solar and wind power around its newest plants.

“By 2025, 86 Meta-supported wind and solar projects in the U.S. will add 9.8 GW of renewable energy to local grids across 24 states,” the company wrote earlier this year.

“Our data centers are contracted for 100% renewable energy. We add more renewable energy to the grids in communities where we work, and increase renewable options for other businesses in those communities. Locating our data centers where we can access and source renewables is a core part of our data center selection process,” according to the company.

For its Iowa data farm in Altoona, Meta signed a power purchase agreement for the Great Pathfinder Wind, a 225 megawatt project located in Boone and Hamilton counties in central Iowa. It is about 40 miles away from Meta’s Altoona data farm

The company’s 37-page conditional use permit application for Boone County showed the wind farm had up to 74 turbines and association facilities, with total height ranging from 551 to 598.6 feet. That wind farm provided nine jobs, and an estimated $19.8 million tax revenue addition over 30 years to Hamilton and Boone counties.

Earlier this year, Meta celebrated its partnership with APEX, which has provided solar and wind power for the Facebook data farms.

“The success of our company and our mission, to accelerate the shift to clean energy, relies on partnerships with first movers like Meta that have set ambitious standards driving the energy transition,” said Mark Goodwin, president and CEO of Apex Clean Energy. “As we advance our sixth project alongside Meta, this portfolio, now totaling more than a gigawatt, represents a diverse set of best-in-class wind and solar projects in markets across the United States.”

Meta’s renewable energy chief, Urvi Parekh, said the Apex partnership extends nationwide.

“We appreciate Apex’s partnership in helping us bring a total of one gigawatt of new renewable energy to the grid across Texas, Virginia, Illinois, Kansas, and Iowa,” said Parekh in documents posted on the company website. “This new solar project will support our commitment to 100% renewable energy and will help bring jobs and investment to the local community.”

Facebook, Meta, Charlie Keppy, Dennis Kay, Virginia Telsrow, Ricky Kay, Randy Kay, Arland Kay, Iowa Department of Economic Development

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