COLUMBIA -- The state House has approved an incentives package for a prospective computer-related facility in the state, offering certain tax exemptions in exchange for an investment of at least $300 million and 100 jobs over five years.

The action came as an amendment to a bill to reward The South Financial Group for its planned corporate headquarters expansion in Greenville.

The amended legislation would provide sales tax exemptions for computer equipment and electricity used in the facilities of Internet service providers or Web search portals.

To qualify, the company must pay wages that are at least 150 percent of the state's average per capita income. At least 60 percent of the $300 million investment must consist of computer equipment.

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Mark Sweeney, a Greenville-based consultant who helps corporations find locations for new facilities, said he reads the legislation as applying to a non-manufacturing facility.

"My guess is this is a very large data center, information management-type facility," said Sweeney, whose company, McCallum Sweeney Consulting, has negotiated incentives packages for Nissan, Michelin and Boeing.

Sweeney said he believes the prospect must be a data center or information management facility because of the nature of the equipment exempted, the size of the required capital investment "and the fact that those projects are out there and are expected to continue to be out there."

Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville County Republican and chief Senate sponsor of the South Financial legislation, said lawmakers were asked by the Governor's Office to include the amendment to help court an economic development prospect that he said could bring 200 jobs and an investment of $600 million to the state.

The prospect has been code-named "Project Data" by state officials because it concerns a computer-related business, Thomas said.

The amendment would also expand the jobs tax credit to include the computer-related firms outlined in the amendment and exempt electricity used by the prospect from the power tax, he said.

Thomas said the prospect isn't looking at any site in Greenville County.

He said while he will support the measure, he doesn't want it to endanger the banking incentives bill for Greenville-based South Financial, parent company of Carolina First Bank.

South Financial said in March it would build a new headquarters along Interstate 85 in Greenville and add about 600 jobs paying an average of $54,000 a year.

Thomas said if opposition surfaces when the bill comes to the Senate, he will move to reject the entire House bill and ask the House to approve the Senate bill now on the House calendar.

"We can't lose one trying to gain something else," he said.

The Legislature has three scheduled work days before adjournment next Thursday.

The amendment was sponsored by House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who told The Greenville News the amendment is at the request of the state Department of Commerce for a possible economic development project. Harrell said he couldn't release details of the project.

Commerce Department officials declined to comment.

The amended legislation must now return to the Senate for approval before it goes to Gov. Mark Sanford and becomes law if he signs it.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, called the development "exciting."

Sweeney said he thinks it's a good idea for South Carolina to have the tax exemptions as a tool to attract data centers.

"There's going to be more of these out there," he said. "It's part of that knowledge economy."