Prineville officials said Thursday that they are talking with additional data-center technology companies about building in the city. Recommendations from Facebook have helped generate this interest, officials say, as have efforts to expand the availability of power, water and land eligible for enterprise zone tax breaks.

“We are now actively engaged in talks with two other data center-type technology companies as a result of the city and county efforts to be proactive and Facebook’s willingness to share the story of their success building a data center in Prineville,” said Prineville City Manager Steve Forrester.

Forrester said the names of the two companies won’t be released until the deals are finalized.

Forrester also said talks have progressed far enough that the companies have been given code names: “Project Campbell” and “Cloud.”

Ken Patchett, site manager for the Facebook data center in Prineville, said he has been impressed with the efforts of city and county officials to resolve water, power, land use and other issues. He also has been impressed by efforts to attract companies and lower Crook County’s unemployment rate, which was 15.3 percent in April.

“The people of Prineville are not figuring out how they can’t do something. They are figuring out how they can,” Patchett said. “It’s not ‘woe is me.’

“I think this area will see a resurgence because of that can-do attitude,” Patchett said.

He said Facebook can be part of the bridge through tough economic times, but the city needs more.

“We are hoping to be an anchor tenant,” Patchett said. “There has been a spotlight put on this community because of Facebook, and I think the community needs to be poised to build on that.”

Forrester said the city and county already have initiated the actions necessary for that to happen.

“We’re absolutely ready for data centers to come in. A lot of land is available in the enterprise zone,” Forrester said, adding the city has recently expanded the acreage of land eligible for enterprise zone tax exemptions. These can extend for up to 15 years, depending on the number of jobs being created by a particular company.

In addition to providing access to enterprise zone land and ample power, Forrester said Prineville and Crook County have been very active in getting the land use designations and water rights needed for additional data centers and other high-tech development.

He said the company called “Project Campbell” has been looking at sites in Prineville and Pendleton, but is now focusing on Prineville because the Pendleton site lacked an adequate supply of electricity.

“My vision, as city manager, is that Prineville and Crook County can become a technology center for Central Oregon. But it is very important that we don’t ignore the other legs of our economic stool, such as the agriculture, secondary wood products and the Les Schwab distribution center,” Forrester said.

He said the efforts Prineville and Crook County are making to attract high-tech companies also create opportunities to expand the region’s natural resource industries and accommodate other development opportunities that may surface in the future.

“The city has been working with the Oregon Water Resources Department and is involved in a proactive strategy to develop the additional water capacity to serve large industrial water users, and to protect future water supplies for community residents,” Forrester said.

Those efforts include federal legislation to allow the release of a small amount of water from Prineville Reservoir to mitigate additional groundwater use for economic development, Forrester said.

“With the infrastructure assets we have in place, we feel pretty confident in our ability to land another company,” said Jason Carr, manager of the Prineville and Crook County economic development programs in conjunction with Economic Development for Central Oregon.

“There have been a lot of inquiries. I can’t talk about specifics. It could be another data center or an end user who needs more power, and we’ve got it,” Carr said. “With Facebook locating here, their connections in the industry has allowed us to engage with companies we otherwise might not have been able to get in touch with.”

Carr said having Facebook’s data center in Prineville, and the fact that the company is already considering doubling its data storage facility, “shows that the city of Prineville and Crook County have been good partners.”

Coming Sunday

Prineville business owners and managers describe how the construction of Facebook’s data center has softened the region’s economic downturn and helped them survive — and, in some cases, grow.