IBM data center to create hundreds of jobs

The flag welcoming IBM to Columbia, unfurled from the roof of Boone County National Bank’s Broadway headquarters Monday afternoon, put to rest many of the questions about the secretive effort to attract a huge employer to Columbia.
The months-long initiative – dubbed “Project Tiger – to attract a high-tech business to the city concluded outside city hall, where hundreds of people had gathered to hear the announcement. Dozens of city, county and state officials assembled on a blocked-off Eighth Street as Gov. Jay Nixon announced that technology giant IBM would build a new data center in the city that could create as many as 800 jobs.
“No recent announcement compares to what we’re announcing here today,” Nixon said.
Timothy Shaughnessy, IBM Global Technology Services senior vice president for service delivery, said he expects 80 percent of the jobs to be local hires and that the facility’s 800-job creation estimate would be reached by 2012. The new facility will be located in a now-vacant office building at 2810 LeMone Industrial Blvd. and should be operational by November, Shaughnessy said.
Shaughnessy said the new facility will provide services such as server system operations, security system support and other end user services. In the last 18 months, IBM has opened similar facilities in Dubuque, Iowa, and Lansing, Mich. The Columbia facility will begin hiring this summer, according to information provided by the company.
Mayor Bob McDavid applauded the efforts of various state officials and legislators, as well as the efforts of Regional Economic Development Incorporated. He called the process to bring IBM to the city “the second most important public-private partnership in the history of Columbia” – behind the 19th century-effort to keep MU in the city.
Shaughnessy said MU and Columbia’s other educational institutions will factor prominently in the company’s recruiting and training efforts. He cited the educated workforce as one of the primary reasons for IBM’s decision to expand in Columbia.
A host of local and state incentives also played a role. Missouri offered more than $28 million in state tax credits and job-training programs to IBM. Boone County is offsetting some of the company’s property and sales taxes with Chapter 100 Bonds. The City of Columbia is planning on purchasing the building on LeMone for $3.2 million and leasing it to IBM for $1 a year for 15 years.
Over the next decade, the facility will generate over $4.3 million in additional revenue for Columbia Public Schools and over $4.7 million for Boone County governments, McDavid said. He estimated that more than 300 homes will be purchased by new employees of IBM.
Materials provided by REDI indicated the facility represents a $15 to $20 million investment in real and personal property. The average salary for those employed at the center will be $55,000.
Former Mayor Darwin Hindman, who spoke at the ceremony, applauded the “tireless efforts” of REDI Chairman Dave Griggs, one of the key players in the initiative.
Hindman said the IBM announcement represents Columbia’s progress into the “knowledge-based economy.”
“It represents the type of economic development the city has been seeking,” he said.
Little was known about the city’s incentive package or the prospective employer before today’s announcement due to confidentiality requested by IBM during the negotiations. The hush-hush nature of the operation, which officials said was necessary to keep IBM from walking away, prompted some quips from Hindman and Nixon about keeping anything out of the media in Columbia.
“Things happening confidentially in Columbia, Mo.?” Hindman said. “Let me tell you, that is really something.”