Wisconsin attracts plans for another data center

Another proposed data center in Wisconsin is in the works.

Virginia-based QTS Data Centers on Tuesday announced it will partner with the Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin to build a $12 billion data center campus in Dane County. The project will include a $50 million community commitment for the area and will support up to 5,000 trade jobs, officials said.

The project will span up to 1,600 acres, with the first three years focused on constructing five data center buildings across 650 acres in the town of Vienna, a QTS presentation showed. The company will also partner with Alliant Energy to develop 750 megawatts of renewable energy generation. The company said it will pay for all project energy infrastructure.

The DeForest Village Board is scheduled to meet Tuesday and review a presentation from QTS Data Centers. The developer plans to annex land from Vienna into the village of DeForest, and no action is planned for the meeting Tuesday, according to the village agenda.

“Before any development may proceed, several public processes would need to occur within the village of DeForest as well as within some State of Wisconsin departments and regional public agencies,” village officials said. “This review and consideration of necessary approvals may occur over the course of many months or more.”

QTS officials said the multibillion-dollar investment will rely on union labor to fill thousands of construction jobs and demonstrate the company’s commitment to local investment and workforce development.

“This partnership with QTS reflects our shared commitment to ensuring that the digital infrastructure our company depends on is built by the highly skilled union workers who live in the very communities it will serve,” said Tracey Griffith, executive director of the Building Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin, in a statement. “When local union members are on the job, projects are built safely and with the exceptional skill and quality our workforce is known for. The economic benefits stay right here at home in Dane County – supporting families, strengthening neighborhoods and driving long-term growth across Wisconsin. By formalizing this partnership, we are investing directly in our workers and in the economic vitality of the communities they call home.”

The labor organization is made of 17 local unions representing more than 6,000 building trades members in Wisconsin, including the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters, the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council and the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, officials said. All the groups announced support of the project.

“The QTS data center project means nearly a decade of steady work for LIUNA members right here in Dane County,” said Kent Miller, president and business manager of the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council, in a statement. “Our training center is in DeForest, and this project keeps our members close to home — so they can earn family-supporting wages, be home for dinner, and still make it to their kids’ ballgames.”

“Our joint effort is about more than technology, it’s about people,” said Ryan Hunter, chief operations officer at QTS Data Centers, in a statement. “It allows us to move forward with the full support of Wisconsin’s impressive skilled union workforce, building a campus that strengthens the economy, supports families and sustainably powers the digital infrastructure of the future.”

QTS will work with local officials and establish a $50 million commitment to support education, workforce development and housing initiatives across Dane County, officials said. The company will also partner with Madison College and the University of Wisconsin for workforce and research programs respectively.

Vantage Data Centers, Oracle and OpenAI and Microsoft are working on separate, multi-billion-dollar data centers in different parts of the state. In October, Vantage Data Centers announced it partnered with the Wisconsin Building Trades Council to build the $15 billion Lighthouse data center in Port Washington. That project is expected to see a peak workforce of more than 4,000 skilled construction workers over three years.

The construction team in the Port Washington project includes Maryland-based Whiting-Turner, New York-based Turner Construction, Missouri-based McCarthy and Iowa-based Weitz.

In Mount Pleasant, Microsoft announced it would engage local labor unions on its data center project. The company recently shared plans for a $4 billion expansion, which will be added to its initial $3.3 billion commitment.