Published: June 30, 2009 10:14 pm      

LOCKPORT: Yahoo! Internet firm coming to WNY

It’s official. Yahoo! is coming.

The well-known Internet services company’s plan to build a data center in the Town of Lockport was given the green light Tuesday. The Town Industrial Development Agency approved a 20-year tax break, and the planning board gave its blessing on the company’s construction site plan. Currently the plan is to break ground sometime in the middle of August, once the Yahoo! board of directors give their expected approval.

Scott Noteboom of Yahoo! said there were a few reasons why the company wanted to build in Lockport, including the area’s resources. The building’s design would use those resources responsibly, he said. There is also the weather.

“The outside environment, which can be a curse to most of you, works for us a lot,” Noteboom said.

Everyone who spoke during the public sessions of both the IDA and planning board hearings was in support of Yahoo! coming to Lockport.

John Butcher, general manager of Summit Print and Mail, said Yahoo! was an opportunity Lockport could not miss. Yahoo! would create 75 jobs.

“To not capitalize on this opportunity to take us into the next generation would be the equivalent of not building the Erie Canal, not letting Mr. Harrison build a radiator,” Butcher said.

Resident Nancy Roth attended the town board hearing to speak in favor of the project. She said the speed of the project was a good thing, with construction beginning sometime in August.

“I’ve not been this enthusiastic about any project in a long, long time,” Roth said. “I think this is a perfect use of IDA funds.”

“I’m really welcoming this project,” John Collins said. “I don’t think we’ve had anything this exciting in quite some time. This is a chance for Lockport to really do something.”

The tax break calls for a 10-year exemption from taxes for Yahoo!, then afterwards the company will be taxed at 20 percent of its assessed value in years 11 and 12, and that proportion will increase by 20 percent every two years. The center is taxed at full value after the 20-year break expires.

At Monday’s joint meeting of the town board and planning board, Yahoo! made some slight changes to its plan. Now the plan is to build a 180,000-square-foot, six-structure plan to replace the 190,000-square-foot, 11-structure plan previously submitted. Most aspects of the plan remain the same, such as the fence that will surround the entire lot, the location of the site and the two-phase construction. Three “pods” and an administration building will be built in the first phase, while two additional pods will be constructed in the second phase. Noteboom said the changes were made because of the land’s depth. With a smaller structure, there would be no need to blast the land, because it would be sufficient to support the building.

Earlier in the day, a news conference was held in the Empire State Development Corp.’s office in Buffalo announcing the Yahoo! plan to come to Lockport. State Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, said he had heard about the conference Monday, but was unable to attend because he was in Albany.

He said he liked the news, but not where the news conference was held.

“It’s absurd,” Maziarz said. “I think it’s extremely poor of the governor to have an announcement for Lockport in Buffalo. To them, Western New York is Buffalo.”

Maziarz said he was pleased Yahoo! was coming to Lockport. And although low-cost power is part of the reason the Internet giant is coming, Maziarz said he felt the New York Power Authority could be doing more to help the area.

Contact reporter Joe Olenick at 439-9222, ext. 6241.