Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Golden Plains Technology Park
Golden Plains Technology Park is an innovative data center campus development in Kansas City, Missouri that is located in both Platte and Clay Counties. The technology park includes three zones featuring data center facilities that will support the growing demand of data, cloud and other hosting services. A data center is a facility used to house a large group of networked computer servers. Data centers can be used for remote storage, processing, or distribution of large amounts of data. Their use depends on size: hyperscale data centers like these can be multi-user or dedicated to a single large use.
As the developer, Diode worked to de-risk and rezone the property to fit the hyperscale data center needs. The team worked alongside Velvet Technologies, Meta’s local project company, to secure a competitive incentive package for data center businesses to make Kansas City their next home for many years. Those incentives are helping to provide funding for a new, $74 million career center aimed at serving 1,000 Kansas City high school students in 23 fields. The incentives were also partially responsible for Smithville School District teachers receiving a 7.5% raise in 2024, the highest one-year raise in the district’s history. Diode sold a portion of the technology park to Meta in late 2020 and has worked with them to continue to develop the technology park with road and site access improvements. Diode sold the rest of the development to Meta in 2021 and 2022. Construction is currently ongoing.
The Midwest offers several geographic and economic advantages for data centers. As a centralized location between the coasts, the Midwest is a midpoint that allows for improved network connectivity between coastal data centers. Additionally, the Midwest is seen as more secure with less risk of natural disasters and other threats. Power pricing is a large factor in data center design and operations. The Midwest often offers competitive power prices and more options to power the facilities using renewable energy resources. In general, the Midwest is seen as a cost-effective region for doing business compared to the densely-populated markets on the East and West Coasts. More specifically, Missouri and Kansas City are seen as attractive places for businesses because of their state and local economic incentives.
It is anticipated that each data center will require high-paying Information Technology (IT) positions to operate the facility. When a data center lands in a region, it serves almost as a technology-driven stimulus to the economy. In addition to the IT jobs that are required for the data center, other businesses tend to grow or expand in the region to support the data center, all of which contribute to the local economy. Other benefits include the following:
Data centers are often thought of as warehouse style facilities; however, many customers look to add natural features to use for security and aesthetic purposes. Golden Plains Technology Park will maintain most of the existing tree lines that naturally subdivide the property into three zones, and attractive fencing will border the site where appropriate. The natural barriers that exist will be improved to provide scenic screening for both client and neighbor privacy. It is intended that the view onto the site from most vantage points on private property will not change. As a neighbor to the city, this exciting project positions Kansas City as a center of innovation on the national and global stage with a significant positive economic impact for years to come.
