On the sunny evening of June 3, the City of La Porte Common Council assembled in the council chambers of La Porte City Hall for a truly monumental session. Bert Cook, executive director of the La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership (LEAP), brought before the council a resolution that will facilitate Microsoft’s construction of a $1 billion data center campus in La Porte. A data center stores servers and powerful computers that support a wide range of web services and applications. Representatives from LEAP and Microsoft were in attendance, and community members filled the council chambers to capacity. Cook views this partnership with Microsoft to be the most recent in a series of successes for La Porte.
“La Porte is the place to be because we are a community that’s on the rise,” Cook said. “This is a historic day for the city, and it’s exciting for us. This is the largest economic development project that has ever taken place in our city. Microsoft is very community-minded, and they’ve been so supportive of everything we’re doing here in La Porte. This event speaks to the momentum that’s picked up in our community ever since Mayor Tom Dermody took office. One of the largest companies in the world has chosen to build here which demonstrates that La Porte is a good location for other businesses, residents, and anyone who is looking for a great community to be a part of.”
The resolution that Cook and LEAP presented to the council was a request to allow Microsoft to invoke the data center property tax exemption as the development and operation of its La Porte data center continues. This exemption stipulates that Microsoft will be excused from paying personal property tax on the data center for a 40-year period. In turn, Microsoft will offer the city a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) of up to $2.5 million – that is, 30% of Microsoft’s tax savings – for a period of four years. These funds will be paid to La Porte’s Redevelopment Commission and the La Porte Community School Corporation. Courtney Parthun, clerk-treasurer for the City of La Porte, expects this partnership to have a significant positive impact on La Porte’s future.
“This partnership will change the trajectory of La Porte forever,” Parthun said. “I have a 7-year-old who is currently attending La Porte schools, and I'm so excited to see how he and his fellow students will benefit from this. My family and I live in La Porte – we work here, we do everything here. It is going to be really exciting to see just how lives will be changed for the better because of this partnership. We’re so lucky to have this happen in our community, and we welcome Microsoft with open arms.”
La Porte will have the distinction of being the first city in Indiana to house a Microsoft data center. Microsoft’s new data center campus, which will be located along Boyd Boulevard at the southern end of the city, will create 200 high-paying jobs for members of the La Porte community. Mayor Dermody considers this partnership to be an affirmation of La Porte’s merit.
“La Porte is a very special community, and I’m very proud to have grown up here,” Dermody said. “When people see that a company like Microsoft is coming to La Porte, that says it all. Microsoft could have chosen anywhere in the state or even the country, but they decided to come here. We’re changing lives, and this is a historic event that La Porte residents will remember for years to come.”
The resolution passed with a unanimous vote and all present applauded enthusiastically as they anticipated the benefits sure to come from this new and exciting chapter of La Porte’s history.You can learn more about what LEAP is doing to promote growth in the La Porte community by visiting laportepartnership.com.