By: Dick Brinster
EAST WINDSOR McGraw-Hill Companies plans to spend more than $100 million on what its CEO calls a state-of-the-art data center at its facility on Princeton-Hightstown Road.
Harold McGraw III announced this week that a 180,000-square-foot area of a warehouse will be used by the global information services provider. He said it will provide a high-tech foundation for future business growth by allowing the corporation to deliver an increasing amount of its financial, educational and business information products digitally with greater timeliness, security and reliability.
The company plans to seek a minor site plan approval from the Planning Board on Monday night, Mayor Janice Mironov said.
The publishing and communications giant is the largest employer in the township. About 1,000 of its 20,000 worldwide personnel work here. The proposal will not add any jobs.
"We have an existing team of employees who run our data operations in East Windsor," McGraw-Hill spokesman Steve Weiss said. "Now, they will have the opportunity to work with a state-of-the-art data technology platform."
The proposal is expected to create additional tax revenue for the township, the mayor said.
"While it would be premature to try to quantify any amounts, an investment of such a large amount of money into the facility and equipment certainly adds value," Ms. Mironov said.
McGraw-Hill wants to complete internal construction of the center, located in the 350,000-square-foot south building, and have it operational by early 2008, Mr. Weiss said. Overall, McGraw-Hill has three buildings here totaling 800,000 square feet, spokesman Jason Feuchtwanger said.
Mayor Mironov called the announcement great news.
"This decision represents a continued commitment on the part of The McGraw-Hill Companies to strengthen its presence in our community," she said. "McGraw-Hill is an important and valued corporate citizen, and we look forward to a continuing prosperous relationship."
Mr. McGraw, also chairman and president of McGraw-Hill Companies, praised the mayor, saying she’s been a valuable partner with whom the company has worked for years.
"Establishing this data center here underscores our long-term commitment to East Windsor," he said in a news release, adding that McGraw-Hill’s corporate operations center has been in the township for nearly 50 years.
As the central hub of the corporation’s global computing needs, the new center will continue to produce many of the critical revenue-generating products such as Standard & Poor’s Rating Direct, BusinessWeek.com, J. D. Power and Associates and McGraw-Hill Education’s TerraNova online assessment series, the release said.
It also said the data center will continue as the location of the corporation’s disaster recovery systems, voice and data telecommunications, help-desk applications, e-mail services and Web hosting for both internal and external Web sites.
"As a leading global information services provider it is critical that we expand our technology platform in a way that strengthens our ability to provide insight, analysis and solutions for our customers and markets around the world," Mr. McGraw said.
"This significant investment reflects our ongoing strategy to use advanced technology for building revenue, reducing costs and creating shared business support platforms that will increase the pace of product development, improve quality and customer service and enhance back-office business support operations."

