photo by: Carlson Design Group and Ghafari

A construction rendering looking towards one of the data center buildings of Digital Realty's proposed "Astra North" campus at Astra Enterprise Park. The view is from Lexington Ave. looking northeast. The design is not final.

A second major data center project has been proposed in De Soto, with developers unveiling preliminary plans for the first phase of construction at the business park that already houses the $4 billion Panasonic battery plant.

Digital Realty – a global real estate development company that owns, develops and operates enterprise-class data centers – purchased approximately 1,435 acres of land last month within De Soto’s Astra Enterprise Park, near West 103rd Street and Lexington Avenue, with the intention of developing one or more data center campuses, according to information provided to the De Soto City Council.

The project is still in its early stages, and Digital Realty introduced the preliminary plans for first phase of construction, known as “Astra North,” on the site with the De Soto City Council on June 4. At this time, no formal plans have been submitted to the city.

The preliminary plans for Astra North outline nine buildings in the development and two substations to power the facilities on 280 acres. The Astra North development is planning to require 600 megawatts of power – which is enough to power 450,000 to 600,000 homes. The nine data center buildings, including administrative buildings, would total approximately 1 million square feet, according to Digital Realty’s website.

Also listed on a master plan map at De Soto City Hall is a large industrial scale solar facility, although that project wasn’t specifically discussed at the June 4 council meeting.

In addition, a storm water detention facility will be on site to handle heavy rainfall and runoff. Digital Realty is also planning to develop drought resistant and a native species landscape surrounding the development.

The project’s first phase is currently anticipated to cost approximately $4 billion, excluding data center equipment. Equipment costs will be determined by the customer leasing the facility and will vary depending on their technology needs and deployment plans, the website said. Plans for the remaining approximately 1,155 acres are still unknown at this time, but that phase has been dubbed “Astra South,” and preliminary plans will likely be shared at a later date.

Rafal Rak, senior vice president of leasing and development at Digital Realty, told the city council the site of the former Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant could benefit from a data center use due to its industrial history. Since it’s been unoccupied for multiple decades, it could now benefit from taxes with a data center development.

Rak said the company – which currently owns and operates over 300 data centers across six continents – develops and leases data center space to some of the world’s largest companies. Examples include Google Cloud, Meta, Adobe, AT&T, Dell Technologies and more.

photo by: Digital Realty

A proposed layout of Digital Realty’s “Astra North” data center campus at Astra Enterprise Park.

For the site at Astra Enterprise Park, Rak said the company is in current conversations with a major cloud infrastructure operator as a potential customer. Digital Realty did not share the name of the company interested in utilizing the data center.

Rak said Digital Realty will be funding the entire cost of two substations constructed on the site, and one of them will be built by Evergy. The other will be built by Digital Realty.

To cool the data centers, there will be HVAC and other cooling equipment on the roof to utilize outside air to cool the buildings for most of the year, Rak said. There will be occasions when evaporative cooling is needed, and the data centers will utilize the water from De Soto. The amount of water the data centers would need was not shared at the June 4 meeting.

However, Digital Realty is eventually planning to work with the city to fund a new industrial wastewater treatment plant on roughly 25 acres of the development. It will receive the effluent from the cooling systems and send it back to be reused, decreasing the amount of water needed for the facilities.

The presentation said the first phase of the project alone will generate over 1,000 jobs during construction, and Digital Realty anticipates Astra North will generate over 250 full-time jobs once it becomes operational.

As the Journal-World reported, this isn’t the first proposed data center project in De Soto. Another company Beale Infrastructure is working on a data center campus northeast of the intersection of 103rd Street and Evening Star Road in De Soto. While Beale and its utility partner, Evergy, have not publicly disclosed the exact total megawatt capacity or anticipated water use for the final four-building build-out, it is expected to utilize Evergy’s Large Load Tariff. This means it will use over 75 megawatts of power.

Members of the community spoke during public comment at the June 4 meeting. Many of the speakers spoke in opposition to not only Digital Realty’s project, but Beale’s as well.

“With Digital Realty and Beale Infrastructure, we face 1,700 acres of data centers,” Jennifer Sharp, a community member, said. “A temporary pause is not enough. We want them out … These complexes sit a mile and a half to two miles from our schools.”

Another community member said it might be beneficial to see how Beale’s development plays out before another development moves forward.

“This town deserves thoughtful leadership, transparency and decisions that put residents first,” the community member said. “And this is what we’ve been asking for.”

The Journal-World has reached out to city of De Soto officials for comment and additional information, and officials with the city are working to arrange an interview.