Google Data Center (NW Omaha - Blair High Road & State)

[Brad]

Looks like there is another large data center coming to Omaha. 250 Acres of land, 1.4 Million Square feet of buildings.

https://planning.cityofomaha.org/images ... ust/31.pdf

[Greg S]

Anything out there on who this might be?

[Omaha Cowboy]

Anything out there on who this might be?

My guess would be a company that already has a presence in the Omaha metropolitan area…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

[Bob from Omaha]

Check with Menard. Could include a ferris wheel! Wheeeeee!

[Omaha Cowboy]

From the weekly Grow Omaha Market Report-

“The City of Omaha Planning Board last week approved a “large-project special-use” permit, possibly paving the way for Omaha’s latest mega data center. The metro area is already home to billions of dollars’ worth of data centers for Facebook (Papillion) and Google (two in Council Bluffs and one in Papillion). Several smaller-but-substantial data centers operate in the area including Yahoo, Fidelity, The Travelers Companies and others.

The latest proposed data center is massive, and the company that would occupy it is being kept secret by local economic development officials. That is standard practice for large development projects involving major corporations.

The proposed center would sit on 261 acres of undeveloped land on the northwest corner of Blair High Road (Nebraska Highway 133) and State Street. Several buildings, totaling more than 1.43 million square feet, would be constructed on the site as well as several outdoor equipment yards.

Architectural renderings presented to the Planning Board show that the buildings would look like large, elongated, high-ceiling warehouses constructed of concrete tilt-up panels. Based on data centers of similar size, this project could be in the billion-dollar range.

Additional City of Omaha approvals will be necessary before the project can legally move forward.”…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

[Brad]

Lots of dirt being moved up here. Hauling some dirt in from the north side of that big blue MUD tank between Fort and Ida.

[Greg S]

How does this compare size-wise to others in the area?

[Erik]

Anything out there on who this might be?

My guess would be a company that already has a presence in the Omaha metropolitan area…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

My guess is Facebook, sorry - Meta. They are in the midst of one of, if not the largest, digital expansion projects in history (to date).

The metaverse and crypto are two massively disruptive technologies that will fundamentally change our lives. Id argue on the scale of the internet (but on a much larger scale to be honest)

[Erik]

In the future, watch for decentralized blockchain operations to build large farms

[Brad]

How does this compare size-wise to others in the area?

This one is 260 Acres.
Google's Sarpy County Data Center is 260 Acres.
Facebook currently owns about 756 Acres on their Sarpy County Data Center Campus.

[BobbiDon]

I was driving south on 133, on Monday night. It was around 6pm and they were still very busy, moving dirt by flood light. I was shocked how much work you could see from 133. Dozens of earth movers zooming around. I don’t get to the south side of the metro often, so haven’t seen much data center work, in person. Pretty amazing!

[Brad]

Speaking of those lights. I’m fairly certain you can see them from 114th and Pacific Street. Driving north in the morning you can see a whole bunch of lights on the horizon that I don’t remember seeing before.

[nativeomahan]

Anything out there on who this might be?

My guess would be a company that already has a presence in the Omaha metropolitan area…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

My guess is Facebook, sorry - Meta. They are in the midst of one of, if not the largest, digital expansion projects in history (to date).

The metaverse and crypto are two massively disruptive technologies that will fundamentally change our lives. Id argue on the scale of the internet (but on a much larger scale to be honest)

It’s a Brave New World.

[Erik]

Anything out there on who this might be?

My guess would be a company that already has a presence in the Omaha metropolitan area…

Ciao..LiO…Peace

My guess is Facebook, sorry - Meta. They are in the midst of one of, if not the largest, digital expansion projects in history (to date).

The metaverse and crypto are two massively disruptive technologies that will fundamentally change our lives. Id argue on the scale of the internet (but on a much larger scale to be honest)

It’s a Brave New World.

Yep. Im really excited to watch these areas progress like it has, coupled with the immense progress of quantum processing growing much faster than expected.

I wish I could cryogenically freeze for ten years to save ten years and start living in that world. Then again, i dont want to lose out on more of my crypto trades

[OmahaFan]

It could also be Amazon. Facebook is focused on building out that papillon data center. I’m guessing it’s Amazon, Microsoft or Apple.

[skinzfan23]

Google announces Nebraska growth plan that includes new northwest Omaha data center

Tech giant Google announced plans Thursday to invest at least $750 million more in Nebraska — in part by building its first Omaha data center.

The California-based company said it intends to add to its Papillion data center complex and give $100,000 to Omaha’s future main library project, which is expected to rise at 72nd and Dodge Streets.

Gov. Pete Ricketts, part of a contingent that welcomed Google officials to a local event Thursday, noted that this latest financial infusion, along with $600 million in 2019, will put the company’s investment into operations in the Husker state at more than $1 billion.

In Douglas County’s Omaha, the new data center is to be built near State Street and Blair High Road.

In Sarpy County’s Papillion, Google said it plans to invest more in the $600 million data center that it said employs 120 people. Construction began three years ago on the 275-acre campus. Google said jobs include supplier roles, computer technicians, engineers, maintenance and security positions.

[Coyote]

Google announces huge investment in Nebraska



At an event on Thursday at its Papillion data center, Google announced plans to invest over $750 million in Nebraska this year. Gov. Pete Ricketts and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert joined Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.

[Coyote]

Google announces huge new investment in Nebraska



At an event on Thursday at its Papillion data center, Google announced plans to invest over $750 million in Nebraska this year. Governor Pete Ricketts and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert joined Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.

[Coyote]

Google announces $750 million investment in Nebraska



Google announces $750 million investment in Nebraska

[Coyote]

Get a sneak peek at the new Google data center site



Work has already begun on the site of the new Google data center

[Coyote]

Google announces huge investment in Nebraska



Nationally, Google plans to invest approximately $9.5 billion in offices and data centers and create at least 12,000 new full-time Google jobs across the U.S. this year.

[Brad]

Any of these announcements say when steel would start going vertical at this site?

[BRoss]

Looks like with this they are widening State Street to four lanes between Hwy 133 and 114th.

#53 in this year's Moving the Metro

114th between State and Potter will be widened to three lanes - #54.

I just drove by there the other day and they are really going to town on the site.

[Brad]

This thing keeps getting larger. Nearly 500 acres now. All the way north to Rainwood and west to 120th street.

https://planning.cityofomaha.org/images ... ary/05.pdf

[OmahaFan]

This would be as big as Southlands

[Brad]

First building has gone vertical.

[Brad]

I featured all 3 of the "Big" Omaha area data centers (Facebook, Google Papillion, and Google Omaha) in my latest Grow Omaha Construction Update Video from the air!

Video is over in this thread:
https://www.eomahaforums.com/viewtopic. ... 3&start=40

Photo from the flight:

881A4877.jpg

[BRoss]

Article today says this data center has become operation in the last few months but is still growing. Also that Google has spent $930M in Nebraska in 2024, increasing their total investment to $4.4B throughout the state over the past five years. These numbers include the original Papillion site (275 acres), this new NW Omaha site (460 acres), and the Lincoln site (580 acres).

https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/11/25 ... y-of-4-4b/

Now five years since Google built a physical presence in Nebraska, the tech giant on Monday announced its latest annual spend on infrastructure across the state: $930 million.

The 2024 capital investment makes for a total so far of about $4.4 billion in Nebraska data centers to help meet growing demand for Google Cloud, artificial intelligence innovations and services such as the company’s search, maps and workspace programs, said spokesman Dan Harbeke.

Just within the past few months, he said, Google’s sprawling data center site in northwest Omaha became operational but is not finished growing.

Its newest data center project in Lincoln remains under construction on roughly 580 acres. And the original Google campus in Nebraska, a Papillion project that broke ground on 275 acres in late 2019, has continued to expand in various ways.

“We’re effectively continuing to build out those footprints,” said Harbeke, regional head of public policy and external affairs. “We are not announcing any new sites this year but we are announcing continued growth and expansion across all three sites here in Nebraska.”

[Garrett]

And a whopping 120 jobs created total since 2019

[Bob from Omaha]

...and billions in construction, millions in funding for non profits, hundreds of thousands in charitable donations, thousands in pro bono and volunteer hours. Oh, and it's more than 120 and is growing. Oh, and while pay depends on position the benefits are good and you don't have to make corn flakes all day...oh, wait, no more Kellogg's....

[Greg S]

Another downside in these data centers is their consumption of energy and water. OPPD has had to build extra capacity to keep up. Unfortunately the cost of this is being spread to everyone, not just Google (and Facebook).

I'd like to know the true cost of this expansion (and how much water is being consumed by all the data centers in the area.

Greg

[skinzfan23]

I wish someone would do a study. I have always wondered what the true costs/benefits of the data centers are. On one hand you can argue that they bring a ton of construction jobs while they are being built, have to pay taxes on the buildings and bring some jobs. On the downside, they use a massive amount of land and energy. I have heard that they are way better with water use b/c they are able to recycle some of it. And they also get huge tax rebates/incentives to build in a certain area.

If you don't give them the incentives, they will just find somewhere else to build and you lose out. I just have a hard time knowing if they are really a good thing for the area or not. At least we don't have them building right along I-80 like in Des Moines, the gray, bland building don't look the best while driving through.

[Linkin5]

I wish someone would do a study. I have always wondered what the true costs/benefits of the data centers are. On one hand you can argue that they bring a ton of construction jobs while they are being built, have to pay taxes on the buildings and bring some jobs. On the downside, they use a massive amount of land and energy. I have heard that they are way better with water use b/c they are able to recycle some of it. And they also get huge tax rebates/incentives to build in a certain area.

If you don't give them the incentives, they will just find somewhere else to build and you lose out. I just have a hard time knowing if they are really a good thing for the area or not. At least we don't have them building right along I-80 like in Des Moines, the gray, bland building don't look the best while driving through.

Think about what a pain in the |expletive| and blight box stores that shut down are, now imagine the same thing with these data centers. Besides the initial construction jobs I see no benefits to these behemoths.

[Garrett]

I wish someone would do a study. I have always wondered what the true costs/benefits of the data centers are. On one hand you can argue that they bring a ton of construction jobs while they are being built, have to pay taxes on the buildings and bring some jobs. On the downside, they use a massive amount of land and energy. I have heard that they are way better with water use b/c they are able to recycle some of it. And they also get huge tax rebates/incentives to build in a certain area.

If you don't give them the incentives, they will just find somewhere else to build and you lose out. I just have a hard time knowing if they are really a good thing for the area or not. At least we don't have them building right along I-80 like in Des Moines, the gray, bland building don't look the best while driving through.

Think about what a pain in the |expletive| and blight box stores that shut down are, now imagine the same thing with these data centers. Besides the initial construction jobs I see no benefits to these behemoths.

Right. Adaptive reuse of there structures as they lose relevance is going to be impossible. I guess they’ll produce another burst of jobs when we have to tear them down!

[Bob from Omaha]

Right. Adaptive reuse of there structures as they lose relevance is going to be impossible. I guess they’ll produce another burst of jobs when we have to tear them down!

Some data centers are adaptive reuse of former warehouses. So I'm having trouble seeing why it would be impossible to repurpose a data center. For what it's worth, I've seen office buildings repurposed into data centers.

What am I missing?

[Garrett]

This is Facebook’s data center in Sarpy County. Facebook has so far bought 920 acres of land, built on about half of that, and has so far built 3.6 million square feet of floor space. It employs 300 people.



For comparison, an Amazon distribution center with 1 million square feet of floor space across around 100 acres that’s also opened in Sarpy county will employ 1,000 people.

Now, the issue is both of these buildings are so massive and take up so much space that, if they’re no longer needed for their original purpose, they’ll be hard to repurpose. We already see that with shuttered big box stores and dying malls.

Yes some office buildings have been turned into data centers. But purpose built data centers like Facebook’s and Google’s and whatever else will be impossible to turn into anything else in the future. And they’ve been received some pretty meaty subsidies while also eating up a bunch of utilities.

[Toto]

Now, the issue is both of these buildings are so massive and take up so much space that, if they’re no longer needed for their original purpose, they’ll be hard to repurpose. We already see that with shuttered big box stores and dying malls.

Facebook's campus could easily be turned in to a maximum security prison. It already has the look and the big fence.

That said, I don't see Data centers going away in our lifetimes.

[Garrett]

That said, I don't see Data centers going away in our lifetimes.

Maybe, maybe not. There’s a lot of possibilities, the main one on my mind being advances in tech could make data centers as built irrelevant. It’s taken a single long life time for Department stores to transform from multi-story buildings in the middle of downtowns (Brandeis) to mall anchors (Crossroads) to big stores (84th street in La Vista). Two of those three examples have been demolished/redeveloped, while one existed in a form that could be adapted to a different use.

I’m not saying data centers are bad or provide zero positives, I just think they don’t really need to be incentivized and communities need to make sure that the average citizen isn’t paying more because of the huge resources they take up.

[OmahaRedWing]

And here's the thing, especially with tech, what we have today, will be vastly different than in years to come.

[Mjs5050ss]

I was trying to do some searching and trying to find a benefit of these data centers. I was hopeful that they would at least ease the burden of property taxes, but was surprised to see this one is paying $0.00 on a $200M valuation.

https://treasurer.douglascounty-ne.gov/ ... 2245320120

Do these data centers get TIF or something?