WEST JORDAN — Days after a secretive plan to lure a Facebook data center to West Jordan was made public, officials said it’s on a fast track for a groundbreaking, despite concerns raised by some local leaders.

In fact, the company hopes to break ground by the end of the month, West Jordan Mayor Kim Rolfe said Monday.

"I'm just hoping we can … move forward and we as a state get this data center," Rolfe said. "This is a great deal for the state of Utah and for West Jordan city."

Public officials can only refer to the plan as Project Discus, but sources and public documents indicate Facebook is behind the effort to bring what could be one of the largest data centers in the world to Utah.

More details about the potential 550,000-square-foot facility were revealed Monday during a Taxing Entity Committee meeting, where West Jordan City Council members, Salt Lake County representatives and school district officials discussed the project and its impacts.

The facility would be built on roughly 230 acres located north of 10200 South, east of state Route 111, and south of New Bingham Highway.

Questions about tax incentive cost and water consumption highlighted the meeting, which came after Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams decided to speak out against the project last week.

McAdams worried that the 70 to 100 jobs the data center would bring wouldn't be worth a $240 million tax break, as well as a commitment of about 5.3 million gallons of water per day.

McAdams also expressed concern that taxpayers have had little chance to learn about the project and its costs, despite the fact that it's been in the works for months.

"It's moving very rapidly at this point," Rolfe acknowledged. "But we have been working on this deal with the state of Utah and all of the other entities for about a year and a half."

While the company has required a competitive tax incentive to consider Utah for its new data center, city officials stressed during Monday's meeting that the project is projected to bring $1.5 billion in capital investment.

Theresa Foxley, deputy director of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development, said Monday she was "suprised" to hear McAdams speak out against the project because data centers have a shining track record for pumping billions into Utah's economy through massive construction projects and acting as "anchors" to expanding job growth.

"There are only a couple companies in the world that are large enough to need their own data centers to support their use, and a couple of them are here in Utah: Ebay, Oracle and EMC," she said, adding that those data centers acted as "catalysts" to add jobs to Utah's economy.

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Ebay, for example, started with a "small presence," Foxley said, and later added a 2,200-person customer support center in Draper.

"That's been a fabulous success story for the state," she said.

Rolfe said he hopes Monday's meeting "alleviates" the concerns clouding Project Discus, noting that there's been "a lot of misinformation" regarding tax incentive and water costs.

The budget the committee reviewed Monday showed the project would cost property taxing entities $185 million over 20 years. Rolfe also said the company would use "considerably less" water than McAdams' reported.

City staff said the center would only need access to that much water in a worst-case-scenario, such as a fire. When the committee asked for an actual daily water use figure, however, West Jordan City Manager Mark Palesh, said he's asked specifically for an amount but the company has not provided one.

McAdams, however, pointed out that Monday's budget figures do not tell the whole story.

The $185 million only includes property tax impacts, he said. According to a Salt Lake County project summary, total local tax impact would amount to about $240 million. In addition to the $185 million, about $50 million in energy tax and $1.5 million in sales tax would also be rebated.

On water, McAdams said while the data center may not use that much water each day, it's still a "legal commitment" that would capture water resources that could be used in other developments.

"I remain very concerned with the proposal that has been brought forward and have not seen any attempt to try and balance it out," he said. "I still have a lot of concerns."

Billy Hesterman, vice president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, shared a similar sentiment.

"Is this in the best interest of Utah to give away so much just to have one big potential name here? I'm not sure that answer's come yet," Hesterman said.

When the committee considered a proposal to approve the budget and put the project before the West Jordan Redevelopment Agency, Jordan School Board member Matt Young said he wouldn't support the proposal, which would need unanimous support to approve.

That's because the school district has scheduled a meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday at 12723 S. Park Ave., Riverton, inviting public comment on the issue.

"I think there is some sense that a lot of this has been done behind closed doors — and a lot of it does have to happen in meetings — but now that it's public and open, we need to make sure everybody has an opportunity to understand it and respond to it," Young said.

The Salt Lake County Council will also be briefed on the project Wednesday during its 1 p.m. committee meeting.

The committee will have one more meeting on Aug. 22 to consider the plan and vote on whether to approve or reject its budget. No public comment will be accepted during the meeting.

If the plan is approved, it will go before the West Jordan Redevelopment Agency at 6 p.m. Aug. 24.

While city leaders have said they feel they have the votes to move the project forward, Salt Lake County officials still haven't been assured it's in taxpayers' best interest, McAdams said.

"I'm concerned at how fast this is moving, but even though this is moving fast, we can still find time for a public forum to solicit public input on this," he said. "This is a pretty big decision, so the public needs to be engaged. They haven't been this far."

Contributing: Paul Nelson

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