A 115-acre data center project could come to Osawatomie, Kansas, says the local government.

“The city has entered into a predevelopment agreement with Alcove Development to explore the feasibility of a potential data center campus,” reads a post by the City of Osawatomie.

Alcove Development is a real estate developer based in northeastern Kansas with experience in commercial and residential projects.

Alcove’s potential data center could span 600,000 sq ft (55,740 sqm), and offer between 50-150MW of capacity. The facility would be backed by an estimated $900 million to $1.1 billion of total investment, and it would benefit from a proposed 50 percent property tax abatement running for a 10-year period.

The data center would span “approximately 116 acres in the Northland area,” which refers to a series of land parcels located at 335th Street and Osawatomie Road that have been prepared specifically for industrial and commercial use.

According to the city, around “100 potential development leads for the Northland property” were pursued between 2007 through 2025, but none of them resulted in construction.

The city also says that “there is not any other industry reviewing the site.”

No formal application for the data center has been submitted yet. The predevelopment agreement provides for a six-month due diligence process that will see the city determine whether a data center is suitable.

Commentators on the city of Osawatomie’s Facebook page seem to have mixed feelings about the prospects of building a data center in the area. But the city is adamant that the point of a predevelopment agreement is to “answer questions, not to avoid them.”

“This discussion is not about liking or disliking a particular industry. It is about how to use one of the most significant economic assets the City controls. Every development option comes with tradeoffs. There is no impact-free path.”

Osawatomie, in Miami County, is located southwest of Kansas City. The Kansas City area is home to the state’s largest cluster of data centers. The Missouri side of the city is also home to a large number of data centers.