A large new data center campus is being proposed in Southwest Washington.
The Tri-City Herald reports the Port of Walla Walla Commission is considering selling 500 acres at Wallula Gap Business Park in Walla Walla County to Advance Phase LLC for $32 million.
Advance reportedly aims to develop a $4.8 billion campus totaling 16 buildings.
The company intends to build its data centers in four phases of 125 acres each; each phase would feature four 215,000 square foot (19,975 sqm) buildings, for a total of more than 3.4 million sq ft (315,870 sqm).
Advance Phase is likely a shell company for one of the large hyperscalers. The Herald reports that Advance is described as “an American multinational technology company, engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence services.”
The commission is set to consider the sale during its meeting this week. Port staff reportedly began negotiating with the company a year ago under the code name ‘Project Tree.’
The Wallula Gap Business Park is a 1,900-acre heavy industrial site adjacent to US Highway 12, Union Pacific Railroad mainline, and 10 miles from Interstate 395.
A January document from the port suggests there are multiple data center projects in the works within Walla Walla Port; the document makes references to Project Forest (100 acres), Project Network (30 acres), and Project Margarita (75 acres, from a Fortune 100 company) as business leads.
