Five local governments in North Carolina are preparing to pitch in on a data center park, where they plan to build out infrastructure and attract data center construction projects.

Data centers have become a popular economic-development option for rural areas around the US. They boost economic activity in communities while being built (the construction projects are usually massive) and create some high-paying permanent jobs once online.

Catawba County, the cities of Hickory and Conover and the towns of Catawba and Maiden have scheduled a public hearing on the plan for Monday evening, Winston-Salem Journal reported.

Called North Carolina Data Campus, the future project will be located on a 70-acre property in Conover.

Catawba County is planning to get an up-to-US$4m community development loan from the state to pay for installation of the infrastructure. If it does, the five governments will share the burden of repaying the debt.

The loan will pay for electrical infrastructure, water and sewer, telecommunications, vehicle access and natural-gas feeds.

The communities already have seen some examples of the benefits large data center development projects can bring. Apple is currently building a data center in Maiden and has already made plans to build a second smaller one on the property.

Facebook has a data center in nearby Rutherford County and Google has one in Lenoir – just 30 miles north of Maiden.