Google Inc. has bought 30 acres of land from the Port Authority of The Dalles, Oregon, for a new technology infrastructure facility, the Web's No. 1 search engine said on Thursday.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, is expected to pay $1.87 million for the parcel of industrial-zoned land 85 miles east of Portland, with an option to buy three other area sites.
The new facility would be Google's second operations outpost in the Pacific Northwest. Last November, Google opened an office in Kirkland Washington, just a few miles from the headquarters of Microsoft Corp., (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) which recently launched a rival search engine.
Spokesmen for both Google and the Port of The Dalles declined to detail specific plans for facilities at the site. Construction is expected to begin soon, which is estimated to cost between $5 million and $20 million.
"All I can say at this time is that we are pleased to be in this area," a Google spokesman said.
Google's search engine, which pulls data from an index of more than 8 billion Web pages, is run over a distributed network of computers housed in numerous facilities worldwide.
The facility would likely create between 50 and 100 jobs over time, paying an estimated average of $60,000 annually with salary and benefits.
SOURCE
...