Omaha Real Estate: Google comes to the Omaha Metro

Google comes to the Omaha Metro

Google is based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Northern California's technology-rich Silicon Valley, but has built a center in the Omaha metro area, more specifically in Council Bluffs, IA.

This $600 million facility is seen as a key economic development win for Iowa, and will eventually result in 200 full-time jobs paying $50,000 a year. "Google has opened up the door to opportunities for us - and Iowa - that we didn't have in the past," Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan said at the opening ceremony on May 20^th 2009.

Google is still hiring workers in Council Bluffs, but local officials noted that the company has room to expand. Google has purchased an additional 1,000 acres of land about four miles from the first phase of its data center project. The company was considering an adjacent 130-acre piece of land for the second phase, but may eventually expand at the larger parcel instead. The purchase doesn't necessarily mean that Google is expanding the scope of its project, but gives it the space to build additional data centers if needed.

Google chose the Omaha metro area because they felt that Council Bluffs has the right combination of energy infrastructure, developable land and available workforce for the data center.  This facility is a specialized facility filled with computers and run by employees who maintain the machines and the building. The computers inside run some of Google's services like the Google search engine, Gmail, and Google Maps. Even your own Google searches may be processed there.