"Speaking purely speculatively, whether it was Apple, IBM or some other well-known company coming to Maiden, it would be a tremendous asset to Maiden and to Catawba County," Midgett said.

Earlier this month it was announced that Apple was planning a facility -- expected to be a data center -- in North Carolina. The facility is expected to employ at least 50 full-time employees. The state legislation requires that the average wage exceed the wage standard of the county in which it’s located. A data center such as is anticipated will typically contract locally for services such as server maintenance and repair, building and HVAC maintenance, landscaping and security -- expenditures that could range from $5 million to $6 million annually in the region and create up to 250 jobs.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce projects that a data center investment of $1 billion would create more than 3,000 jobs in the regional economy, including hundreds of jobs related to construction and others created as a result of economic growth.

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