Kansas firm plans massive Hillsboro data center

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – A Kansas data hosting company says it plans to build a massive 100-megawatt data center on more than 90 acres in Hillsboro.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that QTS Data Centers is the latest in a series of large data companies to build in Hillsboro.

Companies are drawn by lucrative tax breaks worth $7.6 million over the past three years.

Those breaks became less valuable, though, after Hillsboro moved in 2016 to tie the value of tax breaks to jobs created.

Those changes came amid concern that Hillsboro was serving up tax breaks to companies that occupied a lot of prime land but provided few jobs.

Six large Hillsboro data centers employed just 71 people altogether last year.

QTS, which leases space in its data centers to other companies, purchased 92 acres in Hillsboro last fall for $26 million.

___

Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com