An $8 billion data center campus planned by Vantage Data Centers has been greenlit in Port Washington following a unanimous vote by the city’s Common Council on Tuesday night to approve a development agreement with the Denver-based company.
Vantage plans to build four large data centers on a 672-acre site on the north side of Port Washington. The plan includes over 2.5 million square feet of data center space, a visitor center and a warehouse, which will be used by an unnamed company.
The buildings will use a total of 1.3 gigawatts of power, most of which will come from mostly clean energy sources, according to a press release from the City of Port Washington.
Vantage will fund an estimated $175 million in infrastructure upgrades up front, including water, sewer and power improvements, with reimbursement through a tax increment financing district (TID) funded by new property tax revenue from the development. This TID structure is intended to remove financial risk from the city, according to the release.
Neitzke has said the project will help diversify the city’s property tax base and take some burden off of homeowners.
Vantage will begin paying property taxes based on the assessed value of the land it is purchasing. For example, an estimated land value of $120 million will provide approximately $650,000 per year in new tax revenue to the city beginning in 2027. This new revenue would provide property tax relief for homeowners; according to city estimates, property taxes on a $350,000 home would decrease by $170 per year, assuming a flat budget.
Mayor Ted Neitzke called the agreement a “historic day” for the city.
“We can move forward on a generational opportunity to improve our infrastructure, relieve the tax burden on our residents and boost our local businesses,” he said in a news release. “This positions our city for a strong, vibrant future without disrupting the great things we love about living here.”
The development agreement is the latest step in a process that began more than a year ago, when the project site was being assembled for an unnamed microchip manufacturer. After that company decided to build elsewhere, Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure finished assembling the property and put annexation and zoning agreements in place before handing the project off to Vantage.
Vantage’s current proposal is smaller than Cloverleaf’s initial vision for the site, which spans 1,900 acres. Vantage currently only plans to develop about a third of that site, and will need to gain additional approvals for any subsequent phases. Further, Cloverleaf estimated the data center to use 3.5 gigawatts of power and that it would use Lake Michigan water for cooling, which Vantage will not be doing. Vantage would contract with the city and use up to 1.2 million gallons of Lake Michigan water a day from the city’s water plant, however.
Common Council President Dan Benning emphasized the project’s benefits and the city’s careful approach.
“The end result is a development agreement that protects the city and our residents from financial risk while creating significant benefits and positioning Vantage for success,” he said.
“The Vantage data center project is an important step forward for our region’s economy, and shows southeastern Wisconsin’s continued strength as a destination for high-impact technology industry development,” said Rebecca Gries, executive director of Milwaukee 7. “This project will directly benefit Port Washington and create significant positive ripple effects throughout the M7 region and the state of Wisconsin.”
Vantage intends to break ground on the project later this year.
Some residents spoke out against the data center plans during the Tuesday Port Washington Common Council meeting. See more from WISN-TV Channel 12:
More articles about the Port Washington data center campus development:
- Port Washington data center to include more than 2.5 million square feet in first phase
- Details unveiled for Port Washington data center development agreement
- Port Washington data center land acquisitions surpass $50 million
- Denver data center company named as user of Port Washington campus
- What will it take to attract more data centers to Wisconsin?
- We Energies proposes new rates for Microsoft, other data centers
- City of Port Washington Common Council approves annexation agreement with town for data center project
- Port Washington data center project would be company’s first
- Massive data center project planned in Port Washington
