Port Washington residents finally have some clarity on one of the companies that would eventually occupy the proposed 3.5-gigawatt data center campus that developers say could be one of the country’s largest:
That long-awaited end user is Denver-based Vantage Data Centers.
Cloverleaf Infrastructure, the Houston-based private-equity backed firm that acquired the land and permitting for the project, confirmed the identity of the company on June 11.
The announcement comes three weeks after the City of Port Washington’s Common Council annexed and rezoned around a third of the entire 1,900-acre project site from the Town of Port Washington for an initial phase of development to be completed by 2027. The rest of development is planned for completion by 2030.
What we know about Vantage and its moves in the data center sector
Vantage describes itself as a developer and operator of hyper-scale data center campuses across the world, according to the company’s website.
Founded in 2010, Vantage “powers, cools, protects and connects the technology of the world’s leading hyper scalers, cloud providers and large enterprises.”
The company says it is backed by a consortium of marquee investors and is working to aggressively pursue opportunities in key global markets where its customers are looking to expand.
Vantage has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions globally by 2030.
According to the company’s website, its go-to choice for cooling is air-cooled chillers in a closed-loop system, which it says saves water and energy. However, it is not yet clear how it would choose to cool the data centers in Port Washington.
The company currently has 35 campuses across the world, five of which are in the United States, in Virginia, Ohio, Arizona, Washington and California.
Cloverleaf Chief Development Officer Aaron Bilyeu declined to comment beyond confirming the end user company’s identity.
Wisconsin is already home to over 40 data centers, according to a data center industry mapping site, though the vast majority are several magnitudes smaller in size and energy use compared with the Port Washington proposal.
That total is likely to increase, and new proposals will likely be on the larger side of the scale, as state officials are positioning Wisconsin to capitalize on the burgeoning AI and data center industry.
State legislators have worked to attract data center companies to Wisconsin and are working to clear the path for this project and other current and future data centers in the state by removing limits on tax incremental financing districts that could be used to help finance these projects.
In an emailed statement sent to the Journal Sentinel June 11, Vantage spokesperson Mark Freeman said the company is in the early stages of planning and doesn’t have details to provide.
He did say the project will “employee thousands of individuals throughout construction and operations and bring a positive economic impact to the area.” He added that Vantage looks forward to being an active member of the local community.
In a June 12 Facebook post, Port Washington Mayor Ted Neitzke said “Vantage leaders have a clear picture of their responsibilities, our expectations and what we value as a community well before drafting any plans,” due to the city’s prior public meetings.
“We look forward to getting to know Vantage’s leaders over the coming weeks, months and years, and to introduce them to our great community as plans progress,” Neitzke wrote. “We anticipate a strong partnership that will benefit Port Washington and its residents while preserving the unique character of our city.”
Where does planning stand for the proposed data center campus?
Details about the project’s final form will hinge upon ongoing and future negotiations between Vantage, We Energies, Cloverleaf and American Transmission Co., with oversight from the city, the Public Service Commission and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Some of those critical decisions include whether Lake Michigan water will be used for cooling the energy-intensive servers, how to address the campus’ localized environmental impact, what new energy assets will be built to power the project and how potential plans for AI might affect the general public ― all concerns expressed by residents near the site who are following the proposal closely.
Already, broad concept plans for the massive campus include 11 data center buildings and five substations. These buildings would house thousands of interconnected computers linked to the outside world through fiber optic cables to power most modern online services, like social media, video streaming, cloud storage, banking, air traffic control and, increasingly, AI tools.
Cloverleaf has said it’s already working with We Energies to bring 1.3 gigawatts worth of power-generating assets onto the grid by 2027 for the first phase of the project, around 30% to 40% of which would be renewable, according to the firm.
Also by 2027, American Transmission Co. is planning to bring a new high-voltage power line to the site.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Vantage identified as operator for Port Washington’s proposed 3.5 gigawatt data center campus
Reporting by Claudia Levens, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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