Modern infrastructure, thoughtfully integrated into the community
The Pottawatomie Stride campus is being designed with you and your neighbors in mind. Our goal is to bring long-term jobs, tax revenue, and infrastructure investment to the community while staying a quiet, low-profile presence in the background.
$17B
Capital Investment
2,700+
Peak Annual Construction Jobs
510+
Permanent Jobs
About Pottawatomie Stride
The Pottawatomie Stride campus will bring long-term economic benefits to the community by creating hundreds of high-skill technical and support jobs, thousands of construction jobs, and a stronger tax base to help fund local schools, fire and EMS, and county services. At the same time, it is being designed with the community in mind, featuring low daily traffic, strict noise controls, generous setbacks, and strong protections for drinking water and nearby natural areas. Ultimately, this campus is built to deliver real, lasting value to Pottawatomie County with as little disruption to daily life as possible.
Strong Employment Growth
Supports hundreds of high-paying, local technical jobs and thousands of construction jobs over multiple phases.
Supports Local Services and Schools
Grows the tax base that supports USD 383 schools, fire/EMS, county services, and local infrastructure.
Infrastructure Investment
Invests private dollars in utilities and infrastructure instead of placing those costs on existing residents.
Quiet Neighbor
Operates quietly in the background, with low daily traffic and strong protection for nearby homes, natural areas, and drinking water.
Partnership
With a $17B capital investment across 17 buildings and 485+ acres, this project represents one of the largest economic development projects in the history of Pottawatomie County.
Community Benefits
The Pottawatomie Stride campus is designed to be a long-term anchor for Pottawatomie County's economy, creating good jobs and a stronger tax base with limited day-to-day impact on nearby neighborhoods.
- Approximately 1,700 average annual construction jobs over the multi-year build period, peaking at 2,700 jobs per year — supporting local contractors, trades, and suppliers.
- Around 510 permanent, high-paying technical and operations jobs at full build-out.
- Millions of dollars in annual payroll — helping support local businesses, restaurants, and services across Pottawatomie County and the broader Manhattan–Topeka–Kansas City corridor.
Strong Employment Growth
- Approximately 1,700 average annual construction jobs over the multi-year build period, peaking at 2,700 jobs per year — supporting local contractors, trades, and suppliers.
- Around 510 permanent, high-paying technical and operations jobs at full build-out.
- Millions of dollars in annual payroll — helping support local businesses, restaurants, and services across Pottawatomie County and the broader Manhattan–Topeka–Kansas City corridor.
Stronger funding for schools and services
- Data centers generate ongoing property taxes and other public revenues that flow directly to local taxing jurisdictions.
- Under Kansas’s tax structure, a significant share of property tax revenue goes to USD 383, the State of Kansas, the Community Hospital District, the Regional Library, and Consolidated Fire — all of which serve Pottawatomie County residents.
Taking pressure off existing taxpayers
- Pottawatomie County’s current revenue base is heavily concentrated — approximately 47% from property taxes, with a significant portion historically tied to a single industrial facility. This project diversifies and expands that base structurally.
- The project is designed so that major infrastructure upgrades are funded by the project itself, not by shifting costs onto existing households.
- A broader commercial tax base can help reduce pressure for future residential tax increases, while still funding the things residents value most: schools, public safety, and quality-of-life services.
- Kansas law (SB 98) provides a framework for large data center projects that preserves local taxing authority while enabling responsible development.
Environment & Water
Residents of Pottawatomie County care deeply about protecting local water sources, agricultural lands, and natural areas. Kansas state law and this project’s design both start from that point.
Protecting drinking water and wells
- The project is designed to avoid reliance on private groundwater wells or potable water for cooling operations.
- Air-cooled (dry cooling): Uses zero water for cooling. A facility using only air cooling has a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 0. This is the industry’s gold standard in water-stressed areas — and aligns with Kansas’s formal water stewardship requirements under state law.
- Closed-loop liquid cooling: Water circulates internally in a sealed system. Once filled at construction, can reduce freshwater consumption by up to 70%. These systems are now the standard for new high-density AI facilities.
- The project is exploring greywater and wastewater reuse for cooling where feasible — consistent with Kansas’s focus on preserving local water tables (as required under SB 98).
- Potable water use will be limited only to the life safety needs of the building: toilets, sinks, and fire suppression — not for cooling. Total potable water usage is expected to be comparable to a small residential neighborhood of roughly 40–50 homes.
- Kansas requires a formal water plan reflecting stewardship and reuse — this project will comply.
Maintaining a green campus that aligns with the community
- At least 10% of the site will remain as open space, including natural buffers, meadows, stream buffers, and landscaped edges.
- The campus layout keeps the most intensive activity in the interior, preserving natural edges and room for wildlife movement around the perimeter.
- Lighting and fencing standards are designed to reduce glare, protect night skies, and allow wildlife to maintain movement patterns.
- Generators and cooling equipment are turned inward, away from property lines and rural roads.
- Land disturbance permits and stormwater management requirements protect soil, waterways, and ecosystems during construction and operations.
- Air emissions from generators are regulated through rigorous state and federal air-quality permitting programs.
For neighbors
Built-in protections for the surrounding community
How the County put guardrails in place for residents
This project is currently in the community input and regulatory review process. The details described on this site reflect current design intentions and proposed standards. Final terms will be established through the County's planning and approval process.
Projects of this scale operate under multiple layers of regulatory oversight, including local zoning review, state environmental permitting, federal regulatory requirements, and utility infrastructure planning. In Pottawatomie County, a revised text amendment to standardize the data center definition is currently working through the approval process, providing comprehensive local standards for site placement, setbacks, infrastructure coordination, and operational impacts.
Developed in direct response to community input and guided by state policy under Kansas Senate Bill 98 (effective July 1, 2025), these measures establish one of Kansas’s most comprehensive local data center frameworks — designed to protect nearby residents and sensitive areas while enabling thoughtfully planned projects that deliver long-term community benefits.
- Large setbacks between data center operations, homes, parks, and natural areas.
- Strict limits on noise at the property line and required independent sound studies.
- Clear protections for drinking water and requirements to prioritize greywater or water reuse for cooling — consistent with Kansas water stewardship law.
- Required open space, landscaping, and wildlife-friendly design.
- Utility rules that ensure the data center pays its fair share of infrastructure costs.
- Security review by the Kansas Intelligence Fusion Center (KIFC) required for all qualified projects under SB 98.
Have questions about the project? We're here to talk.
Necessary Infrastructure for the Future
The responsible development of data centers is both a local opportunity and a national priority. Communities that plan them carefully can capture billions in private investment, strengthen school and county revenues, and bring modern utility infrastructure — while keeping day-to-day impacts low for nearby residents.
Data centers are an integral part of everyday life, even if you never see them. They quietly power the apps, services, and systems your family already uses, and are critically important for essential services like hospitals and emergency response.
Everyday Uses
- Texting and email
- Social media apps
- Streaming movies and TV
- Streaming music and podcasts
- Online gaming
- Online shopping
- Food delivery apps
- Online banking and bill pay
- Credit/debit card transactions
- Cloud photo backup
- Cloud document storage/sharing
Educational & Workforce
- School homework portals
- Classroom apps and learning platforms (LMS)
- Online testing and grading systems
- Video meetings for work
- Shared online work documents
- Cloud file storage for classes and teams
- Remote work collaboration tools
- Email and messaging for teachers and teams
- School and university online portals
- Career training and certification platforms
Essential Services
- Hospital systems and medical records
- Medical imaging and lab systems
- 911 dispatch and emergency communications
- Police, fire, and EMS information systems
- Utility monitoring (power grid, water systems)
- Transportation and traffic management systems
- Government records and online services
- Disaster recovery and backup systems
- Voting and election-related information systems
The Community
Large power users such as data centers are typically served under specialized utility arrangements that are closely overseen by state regulators. These arrangements ensure that the data center pays its fair share of the costs to build and maintain the electrical infrastructure it needs — rather than shifting those expenses onto existing households and small businesses.
In Kansas, electricity service for large-load facilities is coordinated through Evergy KS under long-term agreements subject to state regulatory oversight. Under Kansas Senate Bill 98, qualifying data center projects are required to commit to a 10-year electricity purchase agreement with their local utility — a provision specifically designed to ensure that grid investment is planned, predictable, and cost-recoverable without burdening existing customers.
For Pottawatomie Stride, that means:
Sound
What you should expect at the property line
The Pottawatomie Stride campus is a multi-building hyperscale data center campus on approximately 485 acres, providing ample space to thoughtfully manage and reduce noise. The facilities are designed as secure, inward-oriented campuses, with generators, cooling equipment, and loading areas placed toward the interior of the site rather than along property boundaries or rural roads.
This large site allows for substantial setbacks from neighboring properties, internalized infrastructure, and landscaped buffers that preserve natural edges and open land. A core promise of this project is that it will operate quietly in the background — and the site’s design is focused on making this data center a low-sound, low-profile neighbor in Pottawatomie County’s rural landscape.
What the rules require
- Near homes, parks, and key natural areas, the facility is required to adhere to strict noise requirements established through Pottawatomie County’s data center zoning framework.
- Everywhere else, noise is capped at a modest increase over ambient levels already present in the area.
- Independent engineers must model noise before approval and test it again once each phase is running. If readings ever exceed the limits, the operator is required to fix it.
For neighbors
Built-in protections for the surrounding community
Tree buffers and setbacks keep the campus a quiet, low-profile presence in the background
Land Use Comparison
How data center campuses compare to alternative development options
Comparative Analysis of Land Use Types
| Category | DATA CENTER | Warehouse | Retail | Residential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Traffic | Low | High | High | Moderate |
| Truck Traffic | Very limited | Frequent | Regular deliveries | Very limited |
| Permanent Jobs | Moderate, highly skilled | Moderate, logistics-focused | Higher count, service-oriented | None |
| Average Wages | High (~$128K avg) | Moderate | Lower to moderate | N/A |
| Public Service Demand | Low | Moderate | Higher | Higher (schools, local services) |
| Tax Revenue Stability | Very stable, long-term | Moderate | Market-dependent | Stable but service-intensive |
| Land Use Intensity | Moderate-size buildings, low activity | Large buildings, high activity | Smaller buildings, high activity | Smaller buildings, continuous activity |
Data center campuses offer significant advantages in traffic, wages, and tax revenue stability — particularly relevant for Pottawatomie County, where fiscal resilience and non-residential tax base diversification are strategic priorities.
Swipe to compare all options →
Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve heard the questions neighbors are asking. Here are straightforward answers.
About the Project
A data center is a secure facility that houses computer servers and networking equipment used to store and process digital information. These facilities support many services people rely on daily, including email, banking, healthcare systems, social media, streaming, and other online communications.
Financial Impact
Infrastructure & Environment
Quality of Life
A data center is a secure facility that houses computer servers and networking equipment used to store and process digital information. These facilities support many services people rely on daily, including email, banking, healthcare systems, social media, streaming, and other online communications.
Still have questions?
We're happy to talk through any concerns you have about the project.