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Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash., software giant, wants to build a major data center on the East Coast and could be considering a location in eastern Alamance County.

“Their search has focused on Virginia and North Carolina,” said Rich Miller, editor of datacenterknowledge.com, an online journal that tracks the data center industry. “By looking at both states, Microsoft would be able to take advantage of the competition between (the two states) for these huge projects.”

Landing Microsoft would further strengthen North Carolina’s growing reputation as a data center stronghold.

In May, American Express decided to build a $600 million data center in eastern Guilford County. Apple and Google selected the Tar Heel state for earlier projects.

Now, published reports say Microsoft is looking at a site in Mebane for a data center that would carry an initial investment of $120 million.

“I sure hope they are looking at us,” said William H. Lashley, an Alamance County commissioner. “It would be a windfall for any county. I wish they would let us know something.”

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment Thursday.

Details of the project remain sketchy.

Commissioners say they were first briefed on the project last month by Mac Williams, president of the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce, the local business recruiter.

Williams described the project using the code name “deacon.”

“The only thing we know is that ... it was for some computer stuff,” said Linda Massey, the commissioners’ chairwoman. “Microsoft was not mentioned.”

Williams declined to provide details Thursday. Mebane Mayor Glendel Stephenson also would not comment.

But other officials interviewed Thursday believe Microsoft is looking at land in Mebane’s North Carolina Industrial Center, a 485-acre property near Interstate 40-85 that is owned by Greensboro-based Samet Corp.

The site is developed for a variety of industries, including data centers.

In 1993, it was part of 1,000 acres the state and Alamance County recruiters hoped would be chosen for a Mercedes-Benz auto-manufacturing plant that ultimately went to Alabama.

Samet officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Alamance and Mebane officials said Thursday that the outcome of the current recruiting effort could depend on action in the General Assembly.

The state Senate has passed a tax credit for companies that locate data centers in North Carolina. The bill is awaiting action by the House.

“We have several companies who will make the decision in part based on that bill,” said Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco. He did not specify where those companies were looking and cautioned that the deal could fall through even if the incentives bill passed.

When asked about the Alamance site, Crisco refused further comment.

Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston Democrat and a key player in the incentives bills in the Senate, said passing the measure is critical. When asked whether Microsoft is considering the Mebane site, Hoyle said, “I don’t know that for a fact, but it is widely rumored.”

Alamance commissioners said they had been scheduled to meet Tuesday to consider setting a public hearing for an incentives request for the project, but the session was canceled at the request of state officials.

“They said to hold off on our meeting because (the company) didn’t want to go public,” said Commissioner Eddie Boswell. “We are waiting on Raleigh to make a move.”

County officials say they fear that publicity about the search process may scare the company off.

“I am worried that they may not come now because someone has let the secret out,” said Massey, the chairwoman. “If they can’t trust us, it really puts a bad taste in their mouth.”
 

Staff writers Richard M. Barron and Mark Binker contributed to this report.

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or at don.patterson@news-record.com