The High Cost Of Wooing Google [BusinessWeek]

Interesting snapshot -- in this case a $600M Google data center

Just as Google has pushed the boundaries of its Internet business, it plays the real estate game aggressively. Beginning with an anonymous approach in late 2005, the company elicited a stream of promises from local and state officials in North Carolina, all frantic to lure a major tech company, even before they knew which one. During months of negotiations over Google's shifting requirements, the company never failed to remind those officials that it could go elsewhere. In the end, the North Carolinians agreed to a package of tax breaks, infrastructure upgrades, and other goodies valued at $212 million over 30 years, or more than $1million for each of the 210 jobs Google said it eventually hoped to create in Lenoir.

Later in the article:

Since the company's plans in Lenoir were announced in January, Weiss has struck similar deals for new computer centers in South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Google won't say how many server farms it operates nationwide.

The High Cost Of Wooing Google