ROCKVILLE, MD—Seeing data centers land across the border in Northern Virginia's Loudoun County, Montgomery County is hoping some grant funding can help level the playing field.

The county has agreed to dish out $12 million in grants over the next 12 years to firms that establish their IT infrastructure at a data center owned by ByteGrid Holdings in Silver Spring.

The program calls for Montgomery County to reimburse tenants of ByteGrid's Silver Spring data center for one-third of the personal property taxes they pay on IT equipment located in Montgomery County, according to the Washington Business Journal.

Steve Silverman, Montgomery County's director of economic development, says, “Big data is the now and the future. Data centers are going to be part of that discussion. We want to be competitive. The first thing is to change the reality and impression that it's going to cost too much to be in Maryland.”

The Silver Spring facility was fully occupied by Citibank until last year. ByteGrid has since leased space to Lockheed Martin and a handful of other companies. However, more than two-thirds of the data center's capacity remains unfilled. See story in the Washington Business Journal.