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Google Pays $24.5M For Former Gatorade Plant

Google Inc. paid $24.5 million for the former Gatorade plant in Pryor — a fraction of the $180 million spent on the facility when it opened five years ago, according to the commercial real estate firm handling the transaction.CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma confirmed the purchase price Monday to the Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/18SNuZC).

PRYOR, Okla. (AP) -- Google Inc. paid $24.5 million for the former Gatorade plant in Pryor — a fraction of the $180 million spent on the facility when it opened five years ago, according to the commercial real estate firm handling the transaction.

CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma confirmed the purchase price Monday to the Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/18SNuZC). The firm said it worked with a third-party consultant hired by Google and did not know with whom it was conducting business.

PepsiCo Inc. closed the 1.4 million-square-foot plant in 2010 and laid off 108 workers, citing declining demand for sports drinks.

Matt Klimisch, first vice president of CB Richard Ellis/Oklahoma, said much of PepsiCo's investment in the plant was associated with equipment used in the bottling operations. He said the company was able to sell or relocate the equipment to other sites.

"The overall price was market for today based on alternative uses for the facility," Klimisch said.

The sellers required that the buyer be a Fortune 100 company and not a competitor of PepsiCo and that the buyer's credit score be better or equal to PepsiCo's, Klimisch said.

"They definitely throughout the process kept everything confidential, but the power capacity and availability of water was extremely important in their choosing the building," he said.

Google now has a data center in the MidAmerica Industrial Park in Pryor and is planning a second structure that would double its capacity and add 50 jobs. The former Gatorade plant is adjacent to those operations.

David Stewart, administrator for MidAmerica Industrial Park, said Google now occupies almost 10 percent of the land available in the park.

"This is a win for us. They don't have specific plans, but they are a very capitalizing and growing company," he said.

A spokeswoman for Google said the company has no immediate plans for the newly acquired building.

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