116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Unidentified company considering Davenport for $800 million data center
City officials emphasized the project is far from a done deal
DAVENPORT — A tech company is considering Davenport for an $800 million data center that would create about 50 high-paying jobs.
The yet-unnamed company is seeking city and state financial incentives to potentially build the data center at a 328-acre parcel in northwest Davenport, at the northwest corner of Hillandale Road and Enterprise Way.
Davenport is among sites the company is considering for a Midwest data center campus, and city officials emphasized Wednesday the project is far from a done deal.
In the next two weeks, the Davenport City Council will consider a tax incentive package to show local support for the potential data center as the company pursues an application for financial assistance through a state high-paying jobs program.
According to city council background documents, the company would invest a minimum of $800 million to construct at least two data halls and ancillary buildings totaling about 715,000 square feet.
At the campus, the company would store, process and distribute large amounts of data.
The center would employ at least 50 new full-time employees at or above pay of $28.76 per hour with benefits.
The company listed in council documents is Vemerald LLC, which Davenport's Community Planning and Economic Development Director Bruce Berger said presumably represents a parent company.
"They've indicated that since it is still in a competitive, site selection process, they cannot divulge the company identity at this stage," Berger wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus.
The data center could be among the largest economic development projects in Davenport. Most recently, Amazon built and opened a $250 million robotics fulfillment center nearby.
Iowa has at least 26 data centers, including the Blue Bird Quad Cities Data Center in Bettendorf. Meta and Microsoft have data centers in the Des Moines area and Google built a data center in Council Bluffs.
Google is eyeing a $576 million data center in Cedar Rapids, which in April received state approval for the city's $56 million in tax breaks.
Davenport incentives
The company is applying for the state's High Quality Jobs Program, a business-assistance program administered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority for companies expecting to create high-paying jobs.
The state program awards financial assistance to qualifying businesses to offset costs to locate, expand or modernize an Iowa facility through loans, forgivable loans, tax credits, exemptions or refunds.
The grant allows local communities to provide a property tax exemption incentive to qualifying businesses that have an investment of at least $10 million and create at least 31 jobs that meet or exceed county wage rates and benefits.
Davenport's proposed incentive would offer a 60 percent property tax exemption for a period of 20 years. That's expected save the company $8.063 million per year, with a 20-year total of $161 million.
The remaining 40 percent of property taxes generated would be distributed as normal to the local taxing jurisdictions — the city, county and schools. The city estimates that to be $5.376 million annually for a 20-year total of $107 million.
Currently the agricultural property is assessed at $958,000, and generates a total of $31,000 in taxes yearly. Of that, about $14,700 goes to the city.
With the data center, the city estimates the property would be valued at $420 million. Under the agreement, the city estimates it would generate about $5.3 million in property taxes in year one and $13.4 million in property taxes in year 21. Of that, an estimated $2.5 million in year one and $6.3 million in year 21 would go to the city.
In total, in the first 20 years, the city estimates it would receive $50.6 million more in property tax revenue than if the data center were not built.
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