A large American technology company wants to build a data center campus in Wallula – a project that would drive hundreds of jobs and nearly $5 billion in private capital investment in the area.

The project would be transformative for Walla Walla County “from an assessed value, tax revenue and job creation standpoint,” said Patrick Reay, executive director of the Port of Walla Walla, which owns the land in the Wallula Gap Business Park east of the Tri-Cities off Highway 12 where the data center campus is proposed.

The project would grow the tax base by 50% and add 720 direct and indirect jobs as it’s developed over four phases, according to information from the port. It’s not a done deal yet, but port commissioners in October signed off on a letter of intent from the technology company outlining the terms of the transaction. 

The port commissioners’ approval was unanimous.

The company has up to a year for due diligence, Reay said.

Who’s behind the deal

The company – which would buy the 500 acres for $32.5 million – is identified in public port documents as Advance Phase LLC. 

However, that’s a holding company for what the port documents describe as an “American multinational technology company, engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming and artificial intelligence (AI) services.”

The identity of the tech company is being kept under wraps for now, with a non-disclosure agreement in place with the port – something that’s typical in this type of real estate transaction, Reay said.

The port has been working with the company for about a year.

The project

The company is looking to build the data center campus over four phases, with each phase encompassing about 125 acres, the port information said. Each phase will involve constructing four buildings, each about 215,000 square feet, the information said.

The port property is south of McNary National Wildlife Refuge and across from Packaging Corporation of America.

“Each development phase will have approximately 80 to 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and approximately 100 FTE vendor positions such as data center technicians, utility tradespersons, building maintenance, equipment repair and security,” the information said, adding that, “the estimated private capital investment for each development phase is approximately $1.2 billion, which can scale up to $2 billion over 15 years.”

The total private capital investment is estimated at $4.8 billion.

Neighbors

Another company also has plans in the business park: the Canadian company Rockwool North America intends to build a manufacturing facility for its stone wool insulation products there.

The company announced earlier this year that it was buying 250 acres for $8.75 million to build the plant, which will employ 125 people and create 670-plus jobs during construction. 

“Rockwool has operated in North America for more than 30 years. We are excited to take this first step toward establishing ourselves in the Mid-Columbia region and growing our stone wool production capacity to better serve customers in the western United States,” said Rory Moss, president of Rockwool North America, in a statement at the time. “We look forward to engaging with the local communities and sharing more as plans develop.”

Rockwool makes stone wool from volcanic rock.