Microsoft Corp. has decided to proceed immediately with construction of its planned $100 million data center in West Des Moines, Gov. Chet Culver announced this afternoon.

Culver made the announcement in a conference call to reporters upon his return from a Midwestern Governors Association meeting in Washington, D.C.

“This is great news in terms of very good-paying construction jobs to build this $100 million facility,” Culver said. “We’re also pleased that initially when complete, the data center will create 25 good-paying jobs paying more than $31 an hour.”

On June 9, the Iowa Economic Development Board approved tax benefits for the project, which West Des Moines City Manager Jeff Pomeranz credited with helping to put the city “over the top” in winning the project from among several other metropolitan areas.

In a press release, a Microsoft official said the state and West Des Moines offered “a competitive business climate for data center investments.”

“We are excited to be able to continue our investments in this region to enable the delivery of our services in the best business way for our customers,” said Kevin Timmons, general manager of Datacenter Operations at Microsoft.

Culver said the economic recovery may have been among the software company’s deciding factors. Coincidentally, CNNMoney earlier today named Des Moines as the eighth most recession-proof area of the country, he noted.

“We’d like to also think that we earned it, competing against a number of cities across the country,” he said.