Kansas’ first hyperscale data center to be twice as big as developers pitched
Construction for what developers are calling the first hyperscale data center in Kansas is underway in De Soto. And shortly after breaking ground on the 300-acre property earlier this year, developers expanded the project’s size by a little over 1 million square feet, more than doubling its initially suggested scope.
Some residents say the expansion is a red flag for a project that has already elicited skepticism among neighbors. But city officials don’t seem alarmed, saying that the project’s size was bound to change, and that the project is still aligned with the city code.
San Francisco-based data center developer Beale Infrastructure first presented its $3 billion proposal to build a four-building campus to the De Soto City Council in August. At the time, Beale officials indicated that the entire campus would total 1.14 million square feet.
“The initial conceptual designs presented to the City Council in August 2025 were preliminary and subject to change, and not part of the formal application, which was submitted earlier this year and approved by the Planning Commission in April and May,” a Beale spokesperson told The Star in an email.
In April, after work began on the site just south of Kansas Highway 10, the De Soto Planning Commission approved a site plan for the first phase of the campus — which covers about half the property and consists of two buildings — totaling about 1.16 million square feet, City Administrator Mike Brungardt said in an email.
“While we have not seen any proposed layouts or plans for the remaining half of the site, it can be reasonably assumed that the total building size of the campus will significantly exceed what was discussed and presented at the time the development agreement was approved,” Brungardt said.
The Beale spokesperson said the entire project is expected to be nearly 3 million square feet.
Why can the square footage change?
Brungardt said that the city’s regulations allow grading work to begin on a construction site before any site plans are approved. The development agreement, which established the framework of the project, doesn’t limit the building’s size, he added.
“The square footage discussed (in August) consisted of preliminary estimates used for revenue projections and was not intended to represent the project’s final design,” he said. “The approved site plan is fully compliant with city zoning regulations.”
The increased footprint happened, in part, because of Beale’s decision to add a closed-loop, air-cooled facility, which will help minimize water use, the Beale spokesperson said.
The payments the company will make to the city in exchange for tax exemptions for 10 years are calculated per building, based on square footage. That means the larger footprint could result in “larger economic impacts to the city,” Beale’s spokesperson said, with $163 million allotted to De Soto taxing districts, including $78 million for the De Soto School District.
Residents aren’t on board
Community members have been skeptical about their new neighbor for months, sharing concerns about the potential impacts the data center could have on the environment and to human health due to its 24/7 operations.
During an open house Beale hosted at De Soto High School in June, resident Kristi Hinkle said that she’s concerned about the city’s rules in place to oversee such a massive operation.
“We have no rules in place right now. We’ve never dealt with this before,” Hinkle said. “It’s going to have a huge impact here on the environment on the people that live right across the street.”
Shortly after the open house, the De Soto City Council tabled a decision to contract with an independent consultant to figure out how to better regulate noise from data centers in its city laws. The discussion will return to the City Council on July 16.
