Potential downside?
Does anyone have a potential upside besides tax income for the city?
The only legally binding public benefit secured through that process was a community amenity contribution of $295,425 (found on page six of the referral report), which is less than the cost of a single affordable housing unit in Vancouver. The $9 billion in projected economic activity, the 525 permanent jobs, and the renewable energy commitments announced were not secured in the application with the city.
This is consistent with US cases I’ve heard about. I can’t find confirmation but if they’re following the pattern in the US, it’s probable nothing that isn’t legally required will materialize and there’s a chance that <$300k is in lieu of paying years of taxes that would have added up to a lot more.
$9billion in projected economic activity? Wouldn’t that be money they’re EXTRACTING from the local economy?
Why is it economically feasible to build a data center in some of the worlds most expensive real estate? The island is not big enough for this.
One of the challenges for these data centres is grid connectivity for the amount of power they use. Could be that sticking them in urban centres provides the necessary pre-existing grid connectivity. Or, maybe Ken Sim and the ABC councilors were just the most willing to make it happen. Just speculating though. I don’t have any inside info. Either way though, in building a 100MW data centre, the land is not the most expensive part.
https://www.alpha-matica.com/post/deconstructing-the-data-center-a-look-at-the-cost-structure-1
Good article. I’m not opposed to data centres altogether, but the big risk is everything being rushed like this without oversight. It is actually possible to do these things right, but who can trust the regulatory and oversight processes on these with the way things are going?
