October 27, 2008
Dear Fellow Nebraskans:
Yahoo is coming to Nebraska. That’s exciting news for our state because Yahoo is one of the world’s most recognizable Internet companies. The company will build a new data center in LaVista and open a customer care center in Omaha.
These two projects present an extraordinary opportunity for our state. Having a Fortune 500 company locate in our state it has a significant impact. Creating hundreds of jobs is even more important. Attracting a marquee company like this will help put Nebraska on the map for more technology jobs in the future.
The process of bringing Yahoo to Nebraska began in January when we learned the company was looking to build a data center in the Midwest. After early discussions with the site selection team, we had a meeting in March to help our business recruitment team at the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED) understand their requirements.
Within a few days, DED had a secure Web site up and running that promoted the benefits of locating in Nebraska. It was also a way to share information requested by the site selection team throughout the process. That allowed new information to be instantly available to the team as they visited other sites in the running for the data center project.
The March meeting also demonstrated the need to update our Nebraska Advantage incentive program to allow Web portal companies to qualify for business credits. In advocating for the change, several Yahoo officials met with state senators who approved the update as part of a bill creating a new tier of economic incentives for companies creating higher-paying jobs.
While those changes and discussions were moving forward, DED was invited to Yahoo headquarters in California to learn about a second business opportunity. Several states were invited to compete for a customer care center that would create a significant number of jobs in the winning state.
By that time, Nebraska was already a frontrunner for the data center. The availability of several possible locations in the Omaha area for the customer care center and the opportunity to locate two projects in close proximity made Nebraska very attractive.
Company officials cited the Nebraska Advantage as a major factor in bringing both projects to Nebraska. Other factors included the availability of job training assistance, abundant fiber optic providers, low-cost and reliable utilities, great universities, and a growing information technology-oriented workforce.
This was an outstanding team effort. Our local economic development partners played a critical role in Yahoo’s decision to locate in our state. Nebraskans can be very proud of the great work by the Nebraska Departments of Economic Development, Environmental Quality and Revenue, as well as the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, the Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation and the Omaha Public Power District.
This remarkable team effort was Nebraska at its best. Nebraska is already strong in areas of data management, telecommunications and information technology. These areas are creating the kinds of jobs that will help our young people to remain in Nebraska. Having Yahoo create additional technology jobs is good news for Nebraska.
