Bloomberg reports that Apple has paid a North Carolina couple $1.7 million for their modest home on one acre of land in a deal to enable the company to build its $1 billion data center in the town of Maiden. According to tax records, the house and property appear to have been assessed at a value of $181,700.
Apple Inc. needed land owned by Donnie and Kathy Fulbright for a $1 billion data center in rural North Carolina. The couple showed no interest in moving out of their home of 34 years in the town of Maiden.
The Fulbrights say they spurned one offer, then a second. Finally, they agreed to sell for $1.7 million, county records show, opting to leave the single-story house on the less than one acre of land they purchased for $6,000.
The Fulbrights have used the proceeds of the sale to purchase a 4,200-square-foot house on a 49-acre property.Meanwhile, Apple appears to be continuing to ramp up staffing for the new data center, with nine new job postings going up earlier this week, primarily focusing on weekend shift positions. Apple made a hiring push earlier this year as it sought to line up staff in advance of the data center's opening and has continued posting occasional job listings in the intervening months, but this week's batch seems to be the largest in many months.Apple announced during its July earnings conference call that the new data center will be operational by the end of the year. While the company has not announced what the new capacity will be used for, observers have speculated that it may be used for cloud-based storage of users' music and video content, as well as for streaming of video content such as on the new Apple TV.
SessileRaptor on December 2nd, 2018 at 19:34 UTC »
Back in the day a friend’s dad owned a small business next to a McDonalds that wanted to add a drive through and needed his land to do it. They guy who owned the franchise asked “ What would it take for me to buy you out?” My friend’s dad crunched the numbers and figured out what it would take to buy another building nearby, plus moving and lost business (and paying his employees) during the move. It came out to close to a million bucks all told, and the owner of the McDonalds looked the figures over and said “Done.” without hesitation because adding a drive through stood to make him just that much more money.
Oznog99 on December 2nd, 2018 at 18:18 UTC »
All the neighbors who sold out early are kicking themselves
BrochachoNacho1 on December 2nd, 2018 at 18:14 UTC »
"I ain't selling. This is my farm. It was my Pappys farm before that, and his pappy 'fore that. It's worth more to my family than any number."
Apple: "1.7 million."
"Welll Pappy would've wanted us to be happy I think that's fine to me"