UMATILLA, Ore. — Sabey Data Centers, which has facilities across the U.S. and in the Pacific Northwest, is planning to build a new data center in Umatilla.

The data center will be built on 60 acres in the Greater Umatilla Enterprise Zone, which is co-sponsored by the city of Umatilla and Umatilla County. Sabey is the latest company to build a data center in the region, with Amazon building more data centers near Hermiston and Umatilla. Amazon Web Services in a study reported it has invested almost $23 billion in Eastern Oregon since 2011.

On its website, Sabey Data Centers said the facility will be 714,540 square feet. However, Umatilla County Board of Commissioners Chair Dan Dorran said the county does not know how much the company will build.

While the Amazon data centers were built to support its own operations, Sabey Data Centers rents space to companies that do not have a data center. Dorran described the facility as “kind of like an apartment building.”

Dorran said he does not know what kinds of organizations rent from Sabey Data Centers, noting that “we don’t ask.”

He said the Sabey data center will have several benefits for the county, with employment as one example.

“It has construction jobs, it has security jobs, all of the vendors who supply everything from data racks or memory racks to electrical supplies,” Dorran said. “All of the different things that go into supporting the ongoing operation of the data center.”

He said taxes from the data centers will benefit special districts in those areas, including the mosquito control district, libraries and schools.

He said he could not name specific projects or amounts that will benefit from the data centers, as the county does not have money from them yet and “does not spend dollars until we get them.”

The agreement between the county, city and company, approved at a county commissioner meeting on Aug. 15, allows the Sabey Data Centers a property tax break similar to the one given to Amazon last year for the data centers in Hermiston and Umatilla.

The break applies for 15 tax years, and in return Sabey must invest at least $200 million, hire at least 10 new full-time employees and pay annual compensation that includes benefits equal to 130% of the Umatilla County average wage. Several annual fees will be paid by Sabey throughout the exemption period, including fees towards the community.

Sabey is required to pay a community investment fee of $2 million in three increments over the first few years of occupying the facility. Payments start within six months of receiving a permit to use the facility, and the funds will go toward the Umatilla Hospital District’s new clinic and the Umatilla River Trail project.

For each tax exemption year, Sabey must pay an annual $85,000 fee distributed by the county to Umatilla School District, and a public safety fee of $58,000 per year distributed to the Umatilla Rural Fire Protection District. Both fees are subject to a 3% increase each year.

Similar to Sabey Data Centers, the agreements with Amazon Data Centers for the sites show public safety and student success fees, beginning at $54,636 and increasing each year.

County Commissioner John Shafer said he believes it is beneficial for the county to provide tax breaks to the companies, as they motivate companies to come here. In the enterprise zones, where the Sabey data center and the new Amazon data centers are, he said the agreements reflect the companies’ investment in school districts as well as special districts such as fire and library districts.

Each contract is different, he said, but through those payments the county still receives money in place of taxes throughout the exemption period.

“If they didn’t come at all, we wouldn’t be getting a single dime,” Shafer said about the companies.

Dorran estimated construction on the Sabey data center will begin in late 2024 or early 2025.