Kansas City Could Be Home to One of the World’s Largest Data Centers

Diode Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of Overland Park-based Black & Veatch, one of the area’s biggest engineering firms is working on a three-phase plan that would span more than 6 million square feet of new construction and encompasses as many as 13 data center buildings. The 882.5-acre proposed data center park would be one of the largest complexes of its kind in the world.

When fully built out, each phase of the data center complex involves an estimated investment of nearly $2 billion dollars.

The data complex would increase Kansas City’s capacity to host data in the cloud. The multibillion-dollar data center complex would help establish the city in a growing commercial real estate sector.

Diode Ventures LLC presented its proposal for Golden Plains Technology Park to the City Plan Commission who gave them the green light. The plan now advances to the Kansas City Council for consideration.

The plan spans across Platte and Clay counties. The developer received approval from city commission members for its development plan and rezoning at the northwest corner of Interstate 435 and U.S. Highway 169 in the Northland.

Per the tentative construction timeline provided, Golden Plains Technology Park could be built in three phases. The first two phases would include five buildings and the third phase to include three buildings. The proposed timeline shows construction through 2036.

The timeline “varies based on client requirements and is still in discussion,” Diode Ventures wrote in a memorandum to the city.
Each data center building is expected to bring high-paying IT jobs, support staff in security, maintenance and landscaping. The project would bring construction work for decades.

The developer would grant an easement for the city to build multi-use trails around the park’s perimeter once officials connect their existing trail network to the property.

Diode’s submission to the city states the Golden Plains Technology Park is positioned to “support the growing demand of data, cloud and other hosting services” while ” advancing the economy with increased business from Fortune 100 companies.”

Diode’s submission summarizes numerous geographic and economic benefits to building data centers in the Midwest, including improved network connectivity with coastal counterparts, less risk of natural disasters and competitive pricing.

The data center could include hyperscale companies such as Apple, Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft. Per Diode’s memorandum, Golden Plains Technology Park could have multiple users or be dedicated to a single large user .

A primary benefit is this would bring companies that have no footprint currently in the Kansas City area. Historically, when those companies land, they tend to cluster.

Diode states they plan to complete the rezoning process before beginning to review incentives for the data center. In 2019, the Port Authority of Kansas City authorized issuing privately backed bonds for Google’s data center in the Hunt Midwest Business Park.

Missouri Senate Bill 149 was signed into law in 2015, and created state and local sales and use tax exemptions for equipment, machinery and utilities used in new or expanding data centers, contingent on the projects meeting investment and job creation benchmarks.

BNIM is the architect for Golden Plains Technology Park. Olsson & Associates is handling the engineering portion.

If everything goes according to plan, it could be one of the biggest data centers in the world and bring a tremendous amount of construction work and deliver a significant positive financial impact to the area.