Google builds Tulsa’s regional market

Staff Report

Google announced Wednesday that it has purchased 800 acres of land in Pryor, Oklahoma and it will establish a new data center on the site.

Lloyd Taylor, director of operations for Google said at a press conference that Google will employ 100 people by the time the first building comes online next summer and another 100 by the time a second building is constructed shortly afterward.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry said, “Google has changed the way the world obtains information, and now they’re here in [Tulsa’s] backyard.”

The move continues the company’s furious effort to build a national network of huge data centers to power its growing universe of online services. Google has also announced a $600 million data center project in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
The 800-acre Oklahoma property is located in the Mid-America Industrial Park, and was purchased by Myall LLC from the Oklahoma Ordinance Works Authority (OOWA).  The Mid-America’s park contains more than 9,000 acres.  Last year Gatorade announced it would construct a $180 million, 1.4 million square-foot plant that will employ 280 people.  
Local officials have informed the Grand River Dam Authority that Google would require as much as 15 megawatts of power, and the authority would likely need to spend about $3.5 million for a new substation and other improvements.  Google has pledged to supply $2 million towards the power infrastructure. 

Bob Ball an economist at the Tulsa Metro Chamber told one daily paper that Google could have an impact of $400 million during construction and an ongoing impact of $14 million to [Northeastern Oklahoma] with $7.3 million of that within the Tulsa metro area.