Courier Business Editor

CEDAR FALLS -- That Microsoft Corp. has chosen the Des Moines area over Cedar Falls to build a data center came as disappointing news to Cedar Falls Mayor Jon Crews.

Crews said he was disappointed for his city, after the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant announced Tuesday that it would build a data center in Des Moines, but he voiced an over-arching optimism.

Microsoft said the center would bring 75 jobs, with an average annual salary of $70,000.

"It's good for the state," Crews said today.

The announcement came about four months after Iowa state officials had approved a package of tax incentives designed to attract Microsoft.

A site for the new data center had not been chosen yet, Microsoft said.

"I can confirm, subject to approval of the state and local assistance, that we're looking at a final list of properties in Des Moines, in that region, for the future construction of the data center," Microsoft spokeswoman Beth Jordan told The Associated Press.

For Cedar Falls, the infrastructure apparently just wasn't there, Crews said.

"I think electricity was a big issue," Crews said. "We didn't pursue it sensibly. I think we had land, workforce and other issues, but it needed too much juice and electricity."

The Des Moines-area data center will be the fifth in Microsoft's network. The company has one up and running in Quincy, Wash., near Seattle and currently is building centers in Chicago; San Antonio, Texas; and Dublin, Ireland.

Stacey Derk, Microsoft's director of marketing for global foundation services, told the AP that Microsoft bases its decisions on where to build data centers on a set of 35 criteria.

Among them are customer demand, the area's Internet population, growth potential, availability of electricity and connectivity to the Internet.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver signed off on an incentive package to lure the data center to the state Feb. 28. State lawmakers approved the tax-break package. For its part, Microsoft has to invest a minimum of $200 million in the state.

The data centers follows a similar successful move by the legislature to bring a $600 million Google data center in the Council Bluffs area.

That deal exempted Google from sales tax on purchases of electricity needed for its center.

Culver said Microsoft got similar incentives.

"Their decision to make Iowa their newest home will have a tremendous impact on our local economy and our state as a whole," Culver told reporters. "Microsoft's innovative spirit is a perfect match with that of our hardworking people."

Crews said he is not discouraged, because Cedar Falls learned a lot in its pursuit of Microsoft.

"In fact, after that, we went to a (technology) convention and are pursuing different leads of smaller-type data centers," Crews said. "This was just bigger than we could handle."

Contact Jim Offner

at (319) 291-1598 or

jim.offner@wcfcourier.com.