Oregon: City looks to land data center in industrial park

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Oregon City Council has authorized the administration to enter into an agreement to sell 168.4 acres in the city’s industrial park for $17.3 million.
The sale would be the first transaction in a deal city officials hope will lead to a data center locating in the industrial area.
The city and Oregon Economic Development Foundation own parcels in the industrial site, which sits in the area of Corduroy, N. Wynn, and Blue Heron roads.
Under an ordinance approved by council Monday, Mayor Mike Seferian and Nick Roman, finance director, are to enter into an agreement with Capacity, LLC, a Florida company, for the sale.
The company provides site selection services for data centers. The name of the data center company hasn’t yet been made known to city officials.
Council voted 7-0 to authorize proceeding with the sale.
Mayor Seferian said a data center facility would fit in well with the city’s new Advanced Manufacturing zoning classification that is designed for facilities that are more environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
He said the city is in the process of purchasing 39 acres and has options on five residential properties on Wynn and Corduroy roads. Those properties would make the site more suitable for the data center.
Legislation authorizing those purchases may be brought before council as early as its regular meeting on Nov. 12.
The mayor said the project, if it comes to fruition, would be a major boost to the local economy, possibly bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars to the city and Oregon schools over a 30-year period.
The administration has consulted with tax experts on a possible abatement package, he said.
“If we structure a 100 percent tax abatement and have a payment in lieu of taxes; there is an avenue that we can achieve and inject funds into our general fund just as though it were a payroll income tax,” the mayor said.
A major condition for the project to proceed is the construction of an electric generation power plant to fuel the data center.
Joel Mazur, city administrator, said CPV Energy has an option on land where a plant would be located.
John Martin, a manager with Capacity, told city council a data center typically uses more megawatts of power than the District of Columbia.
He said data centers don’t usually require a lot of personnel.
“We don’t like to have a lot of people in these buildings,” Martin said. “They’re like surgery centers.”
“This company (Capacity) has to do a tremendous amount of due diligence. A lot of that has nothing to do with the city but deals with energy and getting natural gas to the site. Those are two really big components of this project that they have to figure out before they can move forward,’’ Mazur said. “What Capacity really likes about the site is the access to energy. That’s a big deal to data centers. We know there is still a lot of work to do, but we’re very hopeful this project will come to fruition.”