Facebook Inc. has asked to pull a proposed development agreement from today’s Altoona City Council agenda as the city continues to work out details of local incentives for an anticipated 1 million-square-foot, $250 million data center addition.

Altoona City Administrator Jeff Mark said the agreement could be on the May 6 agenda.

“We are still working on the documents,” Mark said.

Facebook, operating as Siculus Inc., paid $11.4 million on April 5 for 210 acres on the north side of the company’s campus north of Interstate 80 and east of U.S. Highway 65 in the city.

Facebook had searched other areas of Greater Des Moines for its latest 1 million-square-foot project after city officials balked at extending property tax rebates. Instead, city officials are looking for other revenue sources as its obligation to meet Facebook requests for additional state assistance for its project. To date, Facebook has received $26 million in state incentives.

As part of the data center expansion, the city’s planning and zoning commission approved a request from Illinois-based Valley Development Co. to rezone about 58 acres of property south of 25th Street Northwest at Northeast 62nd Street from an agriculture designation to limited industrial. According to a deed signed April 5, Facebook acquired that land and more from Valley Development on April 5.

Facebook currently owns 376 acres in Altoona, with 1.6 million square feet of structures completed or under construction. The present assessed value of Facebook land and buildings is $450 million.

Facebook is in the final stages of construction of its third 1 million-square-foot data center at the Altoona campus.

Altoona doesn’t want to tap property tax relief. It gave up 20 years of property taxes in 2013 when Facebook secured $18 million in state incentives. Those state incentives require a local match. For Altoona, that meant waiving all property taxes for Facebook for two decades.

In 2017, Facebook maneuvered another $8 million in state sales tax relief for a second round of construction. Altoona found its local match in the form of franchise fee revenues. The exact value of the franchise fee relief has not been determined, City Administrator Jeff Mark said.

Facebook is expected to ask for additional state incentives when the Iowa Economic Development Board meets Friday. Facebook reported record profits of nearly $7 billion in the fourth quarter on revenues of $16.9 billion. 

For more on the latest Facebook expansion, read “Facebook sticks with Altoona” and “Facebook set to present plans for another Altoona data center” at BusinessRecord.com.