LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky lawmakers set the stage for a potential $600 million new data center in Louisville in a bill approved and sent to Gov. Andy Beshear last week.
House Bill 8, a sweeping tax policy measure, would provide sales tax breaks to companies involved in an unspecified project in Louisville that houses networked computers and has cooling equipment for those machines, among other things.
"I'm very excited about what could be a transformative economic development project in the southwestern part of our city. It would involve a data center," Mayor Craig Greenberg told reporters Tuesday at Metro Hall.
Greenberg declined to discuss other details, such as the name of the developer and a timeline, but he said the project shows that Louisville can be home to "some of the most sophisticated, advanced computer science services that are needed."
The legislation comes months after Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. announced its plans to build an $800 million data center at the River Ridge Commerce Center across the Ohio River from Louisville in Clark County, Ind. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb hailed that as a step in his state’s goal to be the "AI (artificial intelligence) capital of the Midwest."
The Meta data center is expected to hire about 100 people for its operations and up to 1,250 workers during construction.
The Kentucky legislation creates new sections of state law tailored to a data center project that only could be in Louisville. To qualify for the sales tax exemption, the companies involved in the project must get preliminary approval from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, the state’s incentives board.
Those firms also would have to meet an investment threshold within five years of the KEDFA approval. An owner of a data center would have to sink at least $450 million into the project within that time, while a “project organizer” must spend $150 million.
The board also would enter into an agreement with the company that sets the term of the tax exemption, which would not be longer than 50 years for the $450 million investment or 15 years for the project organizer.
This story will be updated.
Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
