Google has identified two locations in Dorchester County — one near St. George and the other west of Summerville at the Pine Hill Business Campus. The Alphabet Inc. subsidiary has secured historic government tax breaks and discounted electric rates from Dominion Energy, which are about half of what residential customers pay.
These new data centers will complement the existing Google server farm at the Mount Holly Commerce Park in Berkeley County. The amount of data center space in the U.S. increased by 26 percent in 2023, with a record amount under construction. Bill Vass, vice president of engineering at Amazon Web Services, mentioned to the press that a new data center is being established somewhere in the world every three days.
While data centers can strain natural resources, they do not typically generate many jobs. According to attorney Burnie Maybank, a former director of the S.C. Department of Revenue who helped draft the state’s incentives legislation for data centers, this is not necessarily a negative outcome. The law mandates a capital investment of at least $50 million and the creation of at least 25 jobs paying a minimum of 150 percent of the per-capita income within the county.
In Berkeley, this translates to an annual salary of at least $76,029, and in Dorchester, at least $71,662. Maybank described this as a decent income. Mount Pleasant-based transportation firm Tradd Advisory Co. is expanding its operations with an investment of nearly $89,000, which is expected to create 100 jobs over the next five years. The company offers third-party logistics services for shippers, including full truckload, less-than-truckload, and expedited shipments.
Additionally, Tradd facilitates truck moves from major U.S. ports, including the Port of Charleston. The company recently relocated to the Harbour Entrepreneur Center at 11 eWall St., situated off the frontage road parallel to Johnnie Dodds Boulevard.