QTS Welcomes Passage of Georgia Tax Incentive Legislation for Data Centers
As Georgia's leading hyperscale and hybrid colocation data center services provider with 47% market share(1), QTS pioneered the legislation that expands Georgia's tax policy to provide incremental tax incentives to data centers.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., May 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- QTS Realty Trust (NYSE: QTS), the leading provider of software-defined and hyperscale data center solutions in the state of Georgia, today offered its congratulations to Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia General Assembly for its passage of House Bill 696 - legislation that was stewarded by QTS, in conjunction with the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), beginning four years ago.
As Georgia's leading hyperscale and hybrid colocation data center services provider with 47% market share(1), QTS pioneered the legislation that expands Georgia's tax policy to provide incremental tax incentives to data centers. With the passage of the House Bill 696, Georgia joins other key data center markets like Virginia, Texas and Oregon in providing enhanced incentives for data center investment, high-value job creation and technology development and innovation.
QTS has invested in the Georgia market over the past ten years and currently has nearly 600 existing customers and more than 1.3 million gross square feet between its Atlanta-Metro and Suwanee, GA facilities. Additionally, QTS has the capacity to double its square footage in Atlanta at a significant cost advantage based on its existing infrastructure, operating leverage and access to the lowest power cost in the market. Tax savings will be available to both QTS and its customers.
"We are pleased to see the culmination of a journey we embarked upon with QTS four years ago," said Heather Maxfield, Vice President of Government Relations and Statewide Activity, TAG. "QTS has been a trusted partner making it their mission to deliver high performance, cost effective data center and IT services to all Georgia businesses and the Fortune 1000."
At nearly 970,000 gross square feet, QTS' Atlanta Metro data center is one of the world's largest and home to approximately 235 customers across a broad array of industry verticals. The site includes one of the largest pre-positioned, data center owned substations in the country with 120 megawatts of transformer capacity built directly into Georgia Power's power grid. This enables QTS to deliver, it believes, the lowest cost of power to its customers in the southeast data center market at less than 4 cents per kilowatt hour.
"As Georgia's leading data center provider, we are pleased and grateful to the Georgia legislature for the opportunity to accelerate technology investment and innovation," said Chad Williams, CEO – QTS. "This bill further establishes the state of Georgia as an important destination for leading hyperscale technology companies and enterprise customers needing secure and scalable data center solutions. This legislation will greatly benefit our existing customers as they refresh their technology equipment as well as new customers when they come to Georgia for their data center needs."
QTS operates 26 data centers encompassing over six million square feet, with more than 670 megawatts of available utility power, and access to over 500 networks, including connectivity on-ramps to each of the world's five largest cloud providers, ensuring high-throughput, and low-latency access over a single interface.
About QTS
QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: QTS) is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 6 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space throughout North America. Through its software-defined technology platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities. Visit QTS at www.qtsdatacenters.com, call toll-free 877.QTS.DATA or follow on Twitter @DataCenters_QTS.
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(1) Newmark Knight Frank - 2018 Atlanta Data Center Market Trends
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SOURCE QTS Realty Trust, Inc.
