An Iowa company is adamant its proposed data center won’t house large AI servers as Ames continues to consider its pitch.
Des Moines-based Lightedge is interested in building a 100,000-square-foot building at the James Herman Banning Ames Municipal Airport.
Residents filled the Ames City Hall on Tuesday, June 23, to hear a report on the proposal.
The project is a smaller, regional-scale facility compared to “hyperscaler” multi-building campuses serving national and international companies, according to city documents.
City staff and Lightedge representatives explained the proposal and its potential impact during Tuesday’s council meeting, though no action was taken. The public was not allowed to speak, though a “listening session” is planned for June 30.
Ames Mayor John Haila said the council is aware of resident concerns and is taking them into consideration.
“I can assure the council takes feedback from constituents very seriously,” Haila said.
An online petition, “Data Build Data Centers in Ames,” has garnered more than 3,300 signatures opposing the proposal, while a Facebook group, “Ames VS Data Centers,” has 215 members.
What type of data center does Lightedge want to build?
Lightedge says its project is a “co-location” data center. Businesses will be able to rent space to house servers and IT equipment inside a third-party facility.
The “things you hear in the media” is not what the proposal is, Lightedge Chief Marketing Officer Matt Biegacki said.
“This is not a hyperscaler data center; this is not an AI data center,” Biegacki said. “This is a relatively new focus area for a lot of folks, and I think it’s being perpetuated primarily by the fast rise of AI. There’s no way to have a data center conversation without getting into an AI conversation.”
What is Lightedge?
Lightedge is a data protection company that has two data centers in Des Moines, totaling 78,000 square feet. According to its website, the company hosts a number of cloud-based applications across the country at 13 data centers in states such as Texas, Minnesota, Virginia, Missouri, and Arizona. The Ames data center would be the company’s second in Iowa.
Lightedge has been building data centers for 30 years, and its data center in Altoona has been operating for 20, Biegacki said.
“We are not the guys going and building things that are unknown,” Biegacki said. “There’s nothing that we’re installing that we don’t have a ton of information about.”
Airport is considered optimal location
Lightedge is interested in nearly 11 acres along Aviation Way near the airport.
The area is currently used for farmland but is earmarked in the 2020 Airport Master Plan for non-aeronautical uses, Assistant City Manager Brian Phillips said.
“This is a designated, developable area where there is no aeronautical purpose,” Phillips said. “This area is not easily accessible to the airport system; it will not be easy to connect to it with an amenity like a hanger.”
The airport property would give the city the greatest benefit and control, Phillips said, because it would be required to meet the city’s zoning standards, lease agreement and utility agreement.
Ames could either sell or lease the airport property to Lightedge for non-aviation use.
Leasing airport land for non-aeronautical uses allows the airport − and the city − to generate revenue.
Data center project would be split into three phases
Lightedge’s proposal includes constructing the entire building shell and about 10% of its ultimate server buildout during the first phase. It would have three megawatts of electrical demand, about the same amount of power Jack Trice Stadium uses, Ames Electric Director Don Kom said.
The second phase would expand the buildout to 25% capacity and three megawatts.
The final phase would be based on demand over a 10-year period, while the remaining capacity within the building would be occupied by servers. A full project buildout would use 25 megawatts.
By comparison, Ames’ largest industrial customer uses about nine to 10 megawatts, Kom said.
New transmission lines would be needed for the full buildout. The data center would be expected to pay for them under Ames’ Utilities Excess Facilities Charge.
Ames residents will get their chance to speak about a data center
A “listening session” with the council is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, at the city hall, where residents can share input on the data center proposal.
The council will revisit the proposal at its July 14 meeting to consider resident feedback and whether the city can limit the construction of data centers. Haila said a decision could be made that night.
Clinton considers largest data center in Iowa
A recent proposal to build what would be Iowa’s largest data center has emerged. It would be on roughly 1,100 acres of private land near the City of Clinton’s airport.
The proposal comes from Quality Technology Services (QTS), a digital infrastructure company based in Sterling, Virginia. Clinton is drafting an ordinance to guide data center developments and establish enforceable standards before any formal site plans or proposals are considered.
Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames data center won’t house AI servers, Des Moines company says
Reporting by Celia Brocker, Ames Tribune / Ames Tribune
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By Celia Brocker, Ames Tribune | USA TODAY Network
