Chances are that you remember back to the beginning of this year when Verizon Wireless was highly considering Laramie as the site for their gigantic new mega data center. It was all the buzz around town for a while until the unfortunate news that Verizon had decided not to build in Laramie at this time. This would have been huge for the town considering all of the high paying jobs that the center would have created. We decided to talk a little bit with the director of the Laramie Economic Development Corporation(LEDC), Gaye Stockman, to see exactly what transpired and lead to Verizon's ultimate decision and if there is hope that they may reconsider in the future. Here is what she had to say about LEDC as a whole, the Verizon data center and the future of Laramie.

On a day in day out basis, LEDC has quite the charge as they try to establish comprehensive economic development plans for the Laramie area. Not only does LEDC promote and stimulate existing business, but as the name suggests they also plays a huge role in creating new jobs and enticing new businesses to locate in Laramie. This is how they played a part when Verizon was looking at locating in Laramie.

When Verizon first contemplated building the Mega Data Center, their first contact was the Wyoming Business Council because it was simply interested in locating somewhere along I-80. They already owned two long haul fiber lines along I-80 and wanted a site along it to easily link into the lines. The Wyoming Business Council then coordinated visits with communities interested in the 500,000 square foot cloud computing data center in September of 2010, and of course Laramie was one of those communities. Things moved very quickly following that with a site visit to Laramie on October 1st and a filed land use change on October 21st. Key Verizon decision makers visited shortly after that on October 25th, and the land use change was approved for the facility on November 16, 2010. At this point Verizon representatives made even further site visits to Laramie and Wyoming legislative representatives began discussions regarding data center incentives to encourage Verizon to locate in Wyoming. I first hear of the news when the communications giant announced they had purchased an option on 160 acres of land just north of Laramie in January, 2011. It sure sounded like things were getting pretty serious, and I was excited by the news. The state even approved further data center incentives through legislation shortly after this.

Then things went downhill as Verizon merged with Terremark on March 3, 2011. Terremark is a large enterprise IT and cloud computing company. The merger gave Verizon new capacity that the Laramie data center was supposed to provide, so on March 25th key Verizon officials meet with LEDC in Laramie to break the news that the Laramie facility had been moved from their immediate plans for construction. That must have been a tough day for Laramie officials after such a promising few months. However Verizon continues to hold the two-year option on the land north of town.  They are assessing the additional rack space available through the merger/acquisition with Terremark and are evaluating the need for future construction. Gaye Stockman has said that there is still a possibility for the Verizon Center in Laramie although the likelihood of a new site here is limited.

While Verizon might be out, the whole process that Verizon went through here actually puts a really positive light on our city. Laramie received a remarkable amount of national press about Verizon’s site selection for their mega data center.  That exposure has been extremely beneficial, to not only Laramie, but the rest of the state as well.  Through the Verizon site selection process, great resources available in our community were identified.  The redundant power sources, the multiple long haul fiber lines, the ambient climate for cooling purposes, low natural disaster risk, and our highly educated workforce attracted Verizon.

This is great news for our future and LEDC launched the website ClimateCooled.com to educate other companies on what Laramie has to offer. Gaye mentioned that:

The level of interest in the State of Wyoming from the constantly growing data center market has risen considerably.  Currently we have numerous requests for
proposals for large data centers all due before then end of the month.  A positive decision from just one of those leads would make a significant difference to our community.

Data centers aside, LEDC is also currently working with many other business in town to expand as well as several looking to enter the market. Laramie’s potential is boundless because of our highly educated
workforce (52% of our workforce holds a Bachelor’s Degree or higher) and our entrepreneurial sprite. We have opportunities that many similar communities our size covet, which will be a big catalyst for future growth. However Gaye stressed that they do not want to promote the city's growth at any cost.

Laramie also has the opportunity to be selective about the types of jobs and businesses it wants to encourage for growth.  Additionally because of the University’s stabilizing effect, Laramie is not desperate to recruit businesses that are not a good fit for our lifestyle or environment.  With our community leaders
continued stay focus on appropriately enhancing our infrastructure and planing appropriately for our future infrastructure demands, Laramie can gradually absorb the types of businesses it wants to attract.

After this interview I actually look at our town in a little different light and can appreciate the way that it has grown. When my parents went to school at UW there were very few restaurants and they had to leave town to do about anything, but big improvement have been made since then. Laramie might still be small but we do have a great quality of life here. Our future is so bright and without question our city will continue to grow, but it is really the people and our heritage that will continue to make Laramie the place we love and call home.

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