More details have emerged regarding a massive data center planned on the Clay-Platte County line north of Highway 291.
Located in Kansas City, North, the Golden Plains Technology Park is planned as an innovative data center campus development on nearly 900 acres in both Platte and Clay Counties.
The local developer is Diode Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Black & Veatch headquartered in Overland Park. Black & Veatch, BNIM and Olsson & Associates are among the local businesses supporting the development, according to the Diode website. (https://www.diodeventures.com/projects/gptp).
The proposal also includes Velvet Tech Services, LLC, which has reportedly been used by several data center firms seeking to remain anonymous during such development.
Major Effort
Located at Highway 169 and 128th Street, the operation has been awarded up to $8.2 billion in incentives over 37 years but is expected to bring over $103 billion in local investments.
What’s certain is that the development will be massive; it could bring up to 5.5 million square feet of construction, spanning 16 buildings over multiple phases. Plans currently call for 10 buildings in Platte County and six in Clay.
The technology park will include three zones of data center facilities to support the growing demand for data, cloud and other hosting services. The facilities will house a large group of networked computer servers for remote storage, processing or distribution of large amounts of data. Mammoth data centers like Golden Plains Technology Park can be multi-user or dedicated to a single large use.
Local Advantages
The Midwest is increasingly considered an excellent location for data centers because of multiple geographic and economic advantages. The region’s centralized location provides improved network connectivity between coastal data centers.
The Midwest is also seen as more secure with less risk of natural disasters and other threats. The cost for electricity is another factor in data center design and operations. Overall, the Midwest is a cost-effective region for doing business compared to the densely populated markets on the East and West Coasts. Missouri and Kansas City are also attractive because of state and local economic incentives.
Local Benefits
The complex will require a number of high-paying information technology (IT) positions. In addition to IT jobs that are required for the data center, other businesses are expected to grow or expand in the region to support the center.
Golden Plains Technology Park has also announced the center will not be just a collection of warehouse buildings. It plans to maintain most of the existing tree lines that naturally subdivide the property into three zones, and attractive fencing will border the site where appropriate. The natural barriers that exist will be improved to provide scenic screening for both client and neighbor privacy. It is intended that the view onto the site from most vantage points on private property will not change.
Additional information is also available in this Kansas City Business Journal article: (subscriber only) https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2021/04/29/golden-plains-technology-park-incentives-data.html
and in this article on the Data Center Dynamics website:
