By Burt Mummolo, FOX23 News
CHOUTEAU, Okla. — Still hot off the presses, there’s a makeshift label that’s been added to the map of companies in MidAmerica Industrial Park: Lambda.
It’s a small slip of paper with massive potential impact.
“Well, we see it being another Google,” said MidAmerica CEO David Stewart, who took FOX23’s Burt Mummolo to the 300-acre site where Lambda’s data center will be located.
“They’ll start developing soon,” Stewart said.
Lambda co-founder and CTO Stephen Balaban shared, “We’re choosing a location that’s in an industrial park.”
Balaban cited location as one of several factors attributing to a smooth rollout, along with the announcement of how much they expect to pay in taxes.
The figure in the press release was $500 million over the next ten years, which equals about $50 million per year.
Balaban explained, “That’s a combination of property taxes and sales taxes and a lot of that is going directly to a lot of the Chouteau Mazie funds.”
Stewart added, “We didn’t give them any incentives, so they’re going to pay the full boat on ad valorum tax to Chouteau school system, which is going to transform and put that community on a different trajectory.”
The lack of incentives is a stunning twist in the current landscape of data companies seeking massive deals whenever possible.
“One of the conditions that we presented to them was that they would not get any incentives if they came to MidAmerica and they agreed to that,” said Stewart. “We talked about the community and the community involvement, and they were all about being a good neighbor.”
Balaban said, “Lambda has no problem with paying our way in terms of making sure that the community sees the investment we’re making and is able to benefit from that with the taxes that we pay.”
Google, of course, has had their data center at MidAmerica for 20 years, which is another factor working in Lambda’s favor.
“The community’s already aware of what a project like this is, ends up looking like and the jobs that it creates and the taxes that it brings to the community,” said Balaban.
Stewart explained, “When we say ‘let’s don’t do data centers,’ why not? It helps the kids, it helps the school, it helps the rural community get infrastructure and you can see Google right across the street. We’re building housing right across the street.”
