Apple completes downtown Reno warehouse, eyes data center and solar facility expansion. The Silicon Valley-based company announced that it has completed construction of two facilities in the greater Reno-Sparks area while also unveiling two new projects.
Apple officially finished its new downtown Reno storage and shipment warehouse as well as the East Campus of its Northern Nevada Data Center located just east of Reno-Sparks. Apple also says it will build a new West Campus at its data center and help expand the nearby Turquoise Solar Project. The improvements will bring up the total footprint of Apple's data center to 1.2 million square feet.

The East Campus data center has 50 large rooms, filled with servers. They allow people to do every day communication with their devices, including sending text messages and using iCloud. "Whenever anyone calls on Siri from California and Nevada, the servers here answer that call," Kristina Raspe, Vice President of Apple Real Estate Development said. Our partnership with the community, ongoing investment in the area and support of renewable power in Reno exemplifies our commitment to communities across the country."

The downtown facility is seen by the city as a pivotal piece in its efforts to revitalize the Tessera tourism improvement district. After Apple picked Reno in 2012 as a new data center site, it was required to build a downtown Reno facility in order to receive the tax abatements it negotiated with the state. The fate of the downtown facility, however, was uncertain for several years until Apple CEO Tim Cook made a surprise visit to Reno in January last year for a groundbreaking ceremony with Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve.

"Apple's construction has meant a great deal to Nevada, and breathed new life into downtown Reno," Reno Mayor Schieve said. "The company's Reno warehouse will further boost the revitalization of the 6th and Evans neighborhood that had once been abandoned."


Gov. Steve Sisolak credited Apple for taking a chance on the state and starting the wave that brought all those high-tech companies to Nevada. "Apple's investments in Nevada are creating hundreds of jobs across the state and helping revitalize the communities they touch," Sisolak said. "Apple was the first tech company to invest in the Reno area and since then our state has become a hub for technological innovation."


Apple has a five-year plan to invest $10 billion on U.S. data centers while also beefing up its commitment to renewable energy. In Reno, Apple is 100% solar powered. Apple's latest investment in the in the Turquoise Solar Project builds on previous renewable energy efforts tied to the Northern Nevada Data Center. Last year, projects related to the facility generated 186 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy, which the company says is equivalent to the power used by more than 16,750 homes.


The company is also partnering with national veterans' group Empower America to employ veterans for the Turquoise Solar Project. The group's president, Mario Pabon, welcomed the move, which provides participants the ability to learn a new skill set. "Too many veterans return home looking for a way to support their families and end up in dead-end or low-paying jobs," Pabon said. "The construction projects for Apple have been instrumental in helping our veterans begin the start of a great civilian life by finding good paying jobs and training on installing solar power."

Apple isn't the only high-profile technology company investing in Northern Nevada. Across the highway from its data center campus is the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, home to Tesla's Gigafactory and the Switch data center campus. Google also announced that is investing $13 billion this year in data centers nationwide, including in Nevada. Google bought 1,210 acres of land at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in 2017.

These new investments will give Google the capacity to hire tens of thousands of employees, and enable the creation of more than 10,000 new construction jobs in Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia. Google will now have a data centers in 13 communities.
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