Denver-based data center company buys swaths of land in Port Washington

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In preparation for a massive data center project, a Denver-based data center company has purchased hundreds of acres of land in Port Washington.

The 1,900-acre, more than 1-gigawatt data center campus is a project between the city of Port Washington, Cloverleaf Infrastructure and an end user. In June, Vantage Data Centers was revealed as the company with actual data center plans, but no specifics have been released yet, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported.

Last week, an affiliate of Vantage Data Centers bought more than 618 acres of land for more than $18.6 million, records from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue showed. The company made at least 19 transactions with landowners along Highland Drive between June 24 and June 30, records showed.

Officials with Vantage Data Centers didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

Plans called for 11 data center buildings, offices and warehouses, five potential substations and a potential central utility plant. The project will be west of Interstate 43, east of the Ozaukee Interurban Trail and south of Dixie Road. Over the last few months, the city moved to annex land from the town of Port Washington for development.

The campus was first planned for 1,600 acres, with 300 acres held for future development phases, city officials said.

Port Washington officials said this project will bring jobs to the area and add to the city tax base. One hitch for tech companies was the proximity to Lake Michigan, as fresh water is critical for cooling computer equipment.

Last year, an unnamed semiconductor company eyed plans for a large factory in the area but those plans fell through.

Vantage Data Centers, which describes itself as a company that builds scalable data centers, has locations in Ohio, Arizona, Washington, California and Canada. The company also has locations in Europe, Africa and Asia.