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Benson not up to Fortune 500 standards
By Thelma Grimes
Benson City officials said they aren't sure why an anonymous Fortune 500 company opted not to build a new cloud computing center in Benson.
Mayor Mark Fenn said a couple months ago a meeting was held in Benson with city officials and local utility companies such as Southwest Gas and Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Power Cooperative (SSVEC), where members of the Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO), and Arizona Department of Commerce, said they had "a client" interested in building a new project in the area.
Fenn said few details were divulged in the meeting. Public Works Director Brad Hamilton described it as "a job interview" for the city. They were asked questions about the city, what it could provide and if the utility companies such as SSVEC could meet their needs.
All parties attending the meeting still do not know the identity of the actual company. All they know is they were planning to build a cloud computing center, or a server warehouse for online services on a 6,000-acre parcel off State Route 90.
The property to be used was the now failed Anthem at Whetstone project. Ernie Graves, the Whetstone Ranch developer, said he found out about four weeks ago that the company had decided not to move to Benson.
The Benson property was one of five sites being considered.
The Whetstone Development Co. has since filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Fenn said a project that would have created up to 150 high-paying jobs would have been good for Benson, noting he would have liked to have more details on it.
"There would have been about 100 high-tech jobs, so of course it would have been beneficial to Benson," Fenn said. "I'm glad they considered us."
TREO and the department of commerce represented the anonymous company, acting as the go-between with the city.
Hamilton said one of the main topics of discussion during the meeting was whether or not SSVEC would be able to provide enough electricity to the center. There had been questions about whether or not the power company could meet the client's needs.
Jack Blair, the chief marketing officer for SSVEC, said if the company had wanted to come to Benson they would have, noting that power needs sounds more like an excuse they gave to pull out.
Blair and David Bane, SSVEC's key account manager, both attended the meeting, and said they were surprised at first by the amount of power the company was looking for.
Bane said they wanted to use 100 megawatts. SSVEC could have served the load along with the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, it just would have taken heavier wire, he said.
Hamilton said it was obvious during the meeting that the company had concerns with the electric company's meeting needed deadlines in delivering power.
"The amount of power they needed was a shocker at first," he said. "But it seemed like it was worked out after they debated what was needed."
Hamilton said he still doesn't know who the company is and doesn't understand the big secret.
"No one in the room knew except TREO," he said. "None of us really knew enough about it to make any kind of judgment. I'm still curious who it was. They just told us if they said their name we would recognize it immediately."
There are seven Fortune 500 companies that could have been considering the Benson site, including IBM, Dell, Microsoft Corp., Google, Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.
Former Mayor George Scott, who is the current member of the Southeast Arizona Economic Group, told reporters he wasn't sure about the project, noting it was only a few jobs for a project that was expected to take up 6,000 acres.
Mayor Mark Fenn said a couple months ago a meeting was held in Benson with city officials and local utility companies such as Southwest Gas and Sulphur Springs Valley Electric Power Cooperative (SSVEC), where members of the Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities (TREO), and Arizona Department of Commerce, said they had "a client" interested in building a new project in the area.
Fenn said few details were divulged in the meeting. Public Works Director Brad Hamilton described it as "a job interview" for the city. They were asked questions about the city, what it could provide and if the utility companies such as SSVEC could meet their needs.
All parties attending the meeting still do not know the identity of the actual company. All they know is they were planning to build a cloud computing center, or a server warehouse for online services on a 6,000-acre parcel off State Route 90.
The property to be used was the now failed Anthem at Whetstone project. Ernie Graves, the Whetstone Ranch developer, said he found out about four weeks ago that the company had decided not to move to Benson.
The Benson property was one of five sites being considered.
The Whetstone Development Co. has since filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Fenn said a project that would have created up to 150 high-paying jobs would have been good for Benson, noting he would have liked to have more details on it.
"There would have been about 100 high-tech jobs, so of course it would have been beneficial to Benson," Fenn said. "I'm glad they considered us."
TREO and the department of commerce represented the anonymous company, acting as the go-between with the city.
Hamilton said one of the main topics of discussion during the meeting was whether or not SSVEC would be able to provide enough electricity to the center. There had been questions about whether or not the power company could meet the client's needs.
Jack Blair, the chief marketing officer for SSVEC, said if the company had wanted to come to Benson they would have, noting that power needs sounds more like an excuse they gave to pull out.
Blair and David Bane, SSVEC's key account manager, both attended the meeting, and said they were surprised at first by the amount of power the company was looking for.
Bane said they wanted to use 100 megawatts. SSVEC could have served the load along with the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, it just would have taken heavier wire, he said.
Hamilton said it was obvious during the meeting that the company had concerns with the electric company's meeting needed deadlines in delivering power.
"The amount of power they needed was a shocker at first," he said. "But it seemed like it was worked out after they debated what was needed."
Hamilton said he still doesn't know who the company is and doesn't understand the big secret.
"No one in the room knew except TREO," he said. "None of us really knew enough about it to make any kind of judgment. I'm still curious who it was. They just told us if they said their name we would recognize it immediately."
There are seven Fortune 500 companies that could have been considering the Benson site, including IBM, Dell, Microsoft Corp., Google, Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.
Former Mayor George Scott, who is the current member of the Southeast Arizona Economic Group, told reporters he wasn't sure about the project, noting it was only a few jobs for a project that was expected to take up 6,000 acres.
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James wrote on Jun 20, 2009 1:22 PM: