Microsoft recently offered to purchase 407 acres from a Wisconsin family, including its pumpkin farm attraction, for $76 million, according to Milwaukee Business Journal reports. In 2017, as part of an agreement between Foxconn Technology Group and Creuziger in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, roughly 1/3rd was offered. Still, the family held out and demanded more favourable conditions before accepting such an offer from Microsoft.
“[Their family wishes the village and Microsoft well,” according to attorney David Barnes, for their family, and they would appreciate everyone respecting their privacy, according to an article in The Business Journal.
According to Mount Pleasant village assessor Dan McHugh and The Verge, Microsoft’s payout to the Creuziger family’s Land was much more significant than its current valuation of $598,400. According to The Verge report, Microsoft paid them out after initially valuing their Land for only $174,200 but saw its valuation skyrocket after making improvements.
Microsoft purchased Land from Mount Pleasant Village, including Land of the Giants pumpkin farm, and nine-acre corn maze lands, as part of an overall land purchase deal for $99.7 million with plans to develop over one billion in investments for data centre facilities there.
All told Foxconn’s sale represents an exciting development in Mount Pleasant after years of uncertainty and conflicting signals from them. Two years ago, they significantly scaled back their promised investment of $10 billion into Mount Pleasant, including building state-of-the-art manufacturing plants – something Foxconn abruptly abandoned two years prior.
Microsoft plans to initially hire 200 workers at its Mount Pleasant data centre — potentially growing to over 460 positions over time — though this number still needs to catch up to the 13,000 promised to this region by Foxconn back in 2017.