Port of Walla Walla to move forward with proposed data centers
By Dan Thesman on Friday, October 25th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
WALLA WALLA – The Port of Walla Walla Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to execute a letter of intent, plus prepare and enter a land purchase and sale agreement with Advance Phase LLC to build a data center campus in Wallula.
The U.S. based company would spend $32.5 million dollars to purchase 500 acres at the port’s Wallula Gap Business Park, located east of U.S. 12.
During Thursday’s meeting, Port Executive Director Pat Reay addressed the public’s concerns about the buyer’s utility needs.
“They use power,” he said. “They use water. That’s something they’re going to have to figure out how to address that need. We have made not commitment to use port resources.”
Advance Phase LLC plans to invest $4.8 billion to build a cluster of 16 data centers, creating jobs for approximately 320 full-time employees and 400 full-time vendor positions such as data center technicians, utility trades persons, building maintenance, equipment repair, and security.
