Mystery Company to Build $500 Million Center in Cedar Rapids

A yet unnamed tech company is looking for city and financial aid to help build a huge, $576 million data center in Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the Cedar Rapids City Council will consider a development project with Heaviside LLC to build one or more data centers along 76th Ave. and Edgewood Road SW in the Big Cedar Industrial Center. And while Heaviside is named, it is NOT the company that will occupy the development.

If the data center is approved, it will be among the largest, maybe even the largest, economic development projects in the history of Cedar Rapids, according to the Gazette. The proposed business would create 31 new full-time positions paid at or above what is described as a high-quality wage.

Construction of the new center could start within three years of a development agreement with the city of Cedar Rapids. Tax incentives include a 20-year 70 percent tax exemption as long as employment thresholds are met and the high-quality job application is approved, according to the Gazette. The earliest the proposal can be considered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority board is at its next meeting on March 15th.

The Gazette reports that if the proposal is not approved, the city of Cedar Rapids has agreed to work "in good faith" to provide comparable tax rebates. So just who will this mystery tech company turn out to be? It could be anyone, as companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft already have data centers up and running in the state.