More Data Center Operations Coming to KC

With Kansas City already targeted as home for the world’s largest data-center operations, another player is suiting up to get into that game: An operating unit of Google has added more than 235 acres to a nearly 80-acre plot it acquired in 2019 near Hunt Midwest Business Center in Clay County.

Shalerock, LLC is the Google unit behind a plan that development officials say could lead to a data-center project with a projected cost of $600 million. The company said it did not have a set time frame for executing the project, but wanted to lock up the land for future expansion. In 2019, the Port Authority of Kansas City signed off on issuance of up to $25 billion in what are known as Chapter 68 bonds, giving the company plenty of upside financing room should it decide to expand on the initial $600 million first phase.

The latest land acquisitions comes as a Black & Veatch subsidiary, Diode Ventures, is moving forward with site preparation at Golden Plains Technology Park—a 766-acre data center campus in Platte County. Project officials have said that, at full buildout, the tech park could be the largest single-site server operation in the world.