The Washoe County Commission met Tuesday and unanimously voted to move forward with a plan to bring Apple to northern Nevada.
Vice Chairman of the Washoe County Commission Bonnie Weber said Apple has promised hundreds of jobs and $1 billion in investment over the next ten years if they move here.
"It will be a great opportunity for us in Washoe County as far as jobs go. It will bring a lot of construction jobs. I think almost 500 construction jobs over the course of time."
Tuesday's agreement with the county is just the first step in a long process involving $89 million in tax abatements.
Wednesday, the Reno City Council will review their portion of the tax abatement issue.
If all local and state governments approve the tax breaks, Apple will for sure be on its way, but the process could take a month to approve.
Officials said the data center is part of a 2,200 acre project east of Sparks in the Reno Technology Park.
Apple wants to break ground this August and hopes to have a major part of the center complete by the end of the year.
"Once this really gets out in the media, we believe, Apple believes and our community believes that it will be big and this can be the onset of worldwide companies and organizations coming here."
Apple released this statement -
"We hope to build Apple's next data center in Reno to support Apple's iTunes Store, App Store and incredibly popular iCloud services. If approved, this project would expand our presence in Nevada and create hundreds of construction jobs over the next year, plus permanent jobs at the data center which will add to our existing total of nearly 400 employees in the state."
Written by Chris Ciarlo
