Bloomberg “tops off” new datacenter

BY KATHY KAHN
For The Rockland Times

Putting the last beam on the new 130,000 square foot datacenter Bloomberg LP is building in the town of Orangeburg is “the beginning of what we predict will be a boom in high-tech business for the town,” said Orangetown supervisor Andy Stewart.

Bloomberg LP’s “topping off” ceremony—complete with fir tree and American flag, a tradition when a new building is about to lay its final steel beam—took place June 20 and was celebrated by local officials and members of the county’s Industrial Agency and Economic Development Corporation. Executives and staff from Bloomberg LP, Russo Development, the design/build team in charge of construction and Sentinel Datacenters, which will design its interior technical infrastructure, were on hand for the occasion.

“This is really an important project for us,” said Stewart. “Bloomberg’s new datacenter will be the ‘flag’ that will make Orangetown visible and attractive” to other like-minded companies seeking space in close proximity to Manhattan.

Alberto Goldberger, chief financial officer for Bloomberg, said the town and county’s overall cooperation made Orangetown’s Corporate Park Drive location a desirable area to locate what will soon be its third datacenter in the metropolitan region. “We had great partners,” said Goldberger. A $30 million Orange & Rockland sub-station that went on line in 2011 was another incentive helped seal the deal with Bloomberg.

Bloomberg LP’s Rockland datacenter has created 250 construction jobs. Scheduled to be open for occupancy by first quarter 2014, it will bring 80 full-time jobs to Rockland. “Some key people will already be employees of Bloomberg,” said Goldberger, “but we anticipate many new jobs we’ll need to fill.”

The $840 million project received a 12 year PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, said Steve Porath, president of the Rockland Industrial Development Agency. Russo Development will receive an exemption from sales tax on construction materials for the facility and a mortgage tax exemption for the completed structure. Bloomberg received an exemption for sales tax on furnishings and equipment which will net the county $23 million in direct sales tax. The Pearl River School District is expected to receive $250,000 in the first year, reaching approximately $580,000 a year by 2025.

Further down the road, New Jersey-based Martin Group has purchased a vacant 232,000 square foot site where it will build another data center to be co-located with other commercial space for lease, said Porath. “Bloomberg’s new datacenter on Corporate Drive, as well as the purchase of the former WMC building, is great for Rockland’s rateables and for the county’s on site selectors’ radars,” said Porath.

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