Developer withdraws request for Northland data center incentives through Port KC

A developer has withdrawn its application for incentives for a data center project in Kansas City’s Northland, the Port Authority confirmed Friday.

Port KC’s board was to discuss advancing a proposed financial incentive package for what’s known as “Project Blitz,” a data center project on Airworld Drive near the airport. The proposal by Lambda, a California-based artificial intelligence company, involves converting a previously-built facility into an updated “AI factory.”

But the board delayed the vote last week at the developer’s request, officials said. A Port KC spokesperson has since confirmed that the developer has pulled the request entirely.

Details about what the proposed incentives through Port KC were for Project Blitz — which has been described as launching with 24 megawatts of capacity and the potential to scale up to 100 megawatts — have not been made public.

Meanwhile, construction activity has been ongoing at the Airworld site in recent months, city records show, and a state document from April said the site was expected to be commissioned this month.

Lambda did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kansas City Business Journal was the first to report that Project Blitz was tangled up in private arbitration between Pevco and Raeden, firms tied to the Blitz development, that was revealed publicly in a related federal court case filed in March.

Court documents include allegations of mismanagement, delays and cost overruns stretching back to 2025 that have allegedly put the project at risk. One document in the case says that the data center’s end user would be Microsoft, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Attorneys representing Pevco, which filed the case in federal court, told the Business Journal that the project is moving forward and is expected to become operational this summer as its commitment to the project, and the project’s long-term strategic importance, remain.

A Raeden spokesperson said an arbitration panel rejected Pevco’s claims and Pevco’s attempted removal of Raeden as an operating member of the project as Raeden considers next steps, saying it remains committed to completing the project.

“We are pleased with the panel’s decision, which affirms that throughout this project, Raeden acted consistently with its obligations to develop a state-of-the-art data center on a heroic schedule,” a Raeden spokesperson said. “The panel is now deciding on amounts to be awarded to Raeden as a result of its decision. We were confident that this would be the outcome and that it would reflect our commitment to always running our business with integrity and doing what is in the best interests of our clients and partners.”

The Missouri Department of Economic Development announced the Lambda project in October 2025 and said it would benefit from the state’s sales tax break program for data centers.

“It’s been said that AI is the space race of our time, and we must win,” Gov. Mike Kehoe said in a statement at the time. “Data centers are the future and critical to our continued ability to drive technological innovation, strengthen our economy, and safeguard our national security interests. Partnerships like this ensure Missouri remains at the forefront of America’s winning strategy.”

Project Blitz has since faced opposition from organizers in Kansas City that have continued to express concerns about continued data center development in the region, including over their impact on utilities and the environment and their use of financial incentives alongside the artificial intelligence industry’s effects on society.

Data center incentive deals in the region have typically included sales tax exemptions and temporary property tax reductions; projects have been expected to still generate large amounts of new revenue for taxing bodies like schools, even with tax breaks.

This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 4:46 PM.