Google breaks ground on $600M data center in Jackson County

JACKSON COUNTY, AL (WAFF) - Construction is underway for a $600 million internet data center in Jackson County.

On Monday, a groundbreaking was held for the new Google project.

"Everything. I like Google. I use it a lot," said Bridgeport Elementary student Kiersten McKinney.

Kids like Kiersten love using Google to find stuff.

On Monday, you could find a lot of people celebrating the groundbreaking to construct a new data center for the company in Jackson County.

The company plans to hire as many as 100 technical people, but construction of the $600 million project will have an immediate impact on the community.

"The construction jobs will be several hundred construction jobs, and it's a great company. They're using local contractors, local vendors, and it's going to be a big boom for this community," said Jackson County EDA President Shelia Shepard.

School officials are also looking forward to the company's arrival with gr ant money. That happened Monday when the company surprised the Jackson County school system with $100,000, which will go toward growth and development of the areas STEM programs.

"Naturally, it's going to help science, technology, math, things like that in our schools. Hopefully, it will help with jobs," said Jackson County Schools Superintendent Kevin Dukes.

The facility is being built on the old TVA Widow's Creek coal plant site, and company officials say they've got room to grow.

"As demand increases and we build more capacity, we start with one building and who knows where we end up," said Brenda Standridge, Google site manager.

Construction of the new facility is expected to take 12 to 15 months.

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