Department of Economic Development
Nebraska Offers
Innovation, Opportunity,
and Certainty in Uncertain
Economic Climate
Despite an uncertain national economy, Nebraska
remains a highly dependable and ideal location for companies
planning their next move. In fact, the state is enjoying steady
and certain economic growth due largely to its aggressive portfolio of Advantage incentives; low-cost publicly-owned utilities;
dedicated, hardworking, well-educated employees; good infrastructure; ready availability to key modes of transportation and
congestion-free transportation routes; abundant fiber optic
providers; and high quality of life — these attributes are regularly
cited by industry leaders happy to call Nebraska “home.”
These were the top reasons given when web-based service
giant Yahoo! announced last October it would open a 150,000-
square-foot data center in La Vista, Nebraska. The estimated
$100-plus million project is expected to create an initial 50 full-time jobs, and employ local contractors and a couple hundred
workers during construction.
Yahoo! officials also unveiled plans for a second project
involving construction of a new Customer Service Center in
Omaha with room for 200 initial employees, plus space to
accommodate as many as 100 to 150 more employees.
Kevin Timmons, Yahoo! vice president of operations, said,
“We’re very pleased to partner with the state of Nebraska to
build this new data center. Yahoo! builds and operates some of
the industry’s most efficient data centers and this expansion will
help Yahoo! better serve our 500 million users worldwide.”
Novozymes is currently initiating construction of a new $80
million to $100 million production facility in Blair, Nebraska, to
meet demands for enzymes in the bioethanol and biotechnology
industries, initially bringing approximately 100 new jobs to the
state. Headquartered near Copenhagen, Denmark, Novozymes
conducted a worldwide location search before settling on
Nebraska.
“The U.S. is an attractive and competitive market for us to
invest in,” said Peder Holk Nielsen, executive vice president and
head of Enzyme Business. “The new location will allow us to sustain our close operation with bioethanol customers across the
Midwest and provide us access to a well-educated work force
and good infrastructure.”
Similarly, companies specializing in renewable energy are
finding everything they’re looking for in Nebraska. Katana Summit LLC, a partnership of Katana Industries, Inc., Sumitomo Corporation of America headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and SC
Steel Investment, LLC, invested $20 million in Columbus and
Platte County in 2008 to build a new facility and employ up to
100 people in the manufacture of 80- and 90-meter steel wind
turbine towers.
“The Nebraska Advantage incentives package helped bring
a great business development project here to Columbus,” said
Richard Baier, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic
Development. “We’re delighted to add Katana Summit to the
growing field of alternative energy manufacturers with operations here in Nebraska.”
The state’s biomedical industry also is positioned to attract
more biomedical companies with the benefit of being able to
offer development-ready technologies formulated at the state’s
university’s nationally recognized research facilities. One such
company, Vireo Resources, was welcomed to Plattsmouth,
