U.S. tech giant shielded by alias makes deal for $5B data center in Eastern WA
A U.S. tech giant using the alias “Advance Phase LLC” has secured a deal to buy 500 acres near Pasco for a $5 billion data center campus.
The Port of Walla Walla commission voted unanimously this week to sell land at its Wallula Gap Business Park to “Advance Phase” for $32.5 million, setting in motion a project with potential to transform the economy of Walla Walla County.
The port knows the identity of the company operating behind the alias, but said it was bound by a nondisclosure agreement. Officials said it is a standard measure to shield expansion and investment plans from competitors.
Paul Gerola, the port’s economic development lead, said “Advance Phase” is an American company that is one of the 30 largest companies by revenue on the Fortune 500 list.
The port is convinced it is a legitimate partner offering Walla Walla a chance to expand its total tax base by nearly 50%.
“They are a very sound company,” Gerola said.
Fortune 500 company
The port described Advance Phase as an “American multinational technology company, engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence service.”
Conceivably, several companies in the Fortune 500 top 30: Amazon, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Meta Platforms (Facebook).
The port began negotiating with “Advance” about a year ago, referring to it by the code name “Project Tree.”
“Advance Phase” intends to build 16 data centers in four phases off Highway 12 in Wallula Gap, where it would be neighbors with Packaging Corporation of America, Tyson and the future Rockwool insulation plant.
It would build four buildings per phase, bringing about 3.4 million square feet of space under its various roofs.
Lower property taxes?
If built, it would be a major taxpayer, with revenue going to county government, schools and a myriad of public agencies. Port Commissioner Ron Dunning suggested it could lower tax rates for existing businesses, farms and homeowners.
Neither the port nor Walla Walla County offered financial or other incentives to support the project, which will be eligible for the standard data center breaks offered by the state of Washington.
The port will provide potable water for drinking and bathroom purposes but is not offering water for industrial purposes. “Advance” will have to secure the industrial water it needs to support operations and the massive amounts of power it will need to run its vast network of computers.
The data center campus would employ 380 and support about 400 more positions described as “indirect,” the port said.
Commissioner Amy Schwab called “Advance” a huge opportunity for Walla Walla to tap into the connected future.
“These companies hold the promise to get us to a clean future,” she said. “It’s more than just creating capacity for uploading our latest cute cat pictures.”
The port kept “Advance Phase” under wraps until it included the land deal in the agenda for the commission’s regular business meeting this week.
Blindsided
Residents told the commission they were startled that such a major project was under consideration.
They posed questions about the company’s identity, how it would power the complex, where it would get water and whether it would become a cryptocurrency mine, among other topics.
Commissioner Schwab asked to delay the vote two weeks to give the community more time to absorb the scale of the deal. Her motion failed on a 2-1 vote.
Bob Carson of Walla Walla advised the commission to require the mystery buyer to consider the natural environment as it builds the site.
He encouraged the commission to consult with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation for its opinion on how the data center campus would affect the sacred spot where the Snake and other waterways meet the Columbia River.
“Do we really need this?” one skeptical resident asked the board.
Doug Juers told the commission he was concerned about the “ambiguity” of the company. “Advance Phase” doesn’t appear on the Fortune 500 list, he said. Without knowing its actual identity, it is hard for the public to know what it will do at Wallula Gap.
“Do we know that they’re not going to be mining cryptocurrency?” he wondered.
Port officials assured him that is not the plan.
He wasn’t convinced.
“It just sort of highlights how little we know about who the company is and what they’re going to be doing in Walla Walla County,” Juers told the commission.
Obvious candidate?
While “Advanced Phase” is an alias, Amazon Web Services is one obvious candidate for the company behind the deal.
The Seattle e-commerce engages in the activities the port described: It is an “American multinational technology company” with interests in “e-commerce,” “cloud computing,” “online advertising,” “digital streaming” and “artificial intelligence services.”
Even better, it has substantial and diverse operations in the Tri-Cities and Northeast Oregon.
In addition to its two warehouses and a delivery station in Pasco, its web services arm operates about a dozen existing and proposed data centers in Boardman and Umatilla, on the Oregon side of the state line.
The company boasted it employed 940 full-time employees there in 2023. This summer, it announced plans to invest more than $100 billion on new data centers in the coming decade.
Just this month, Amazon took steps to secure the kind of power a data center complex would need via Energy Northwest, in Richland.
On Oct. 16, it announced it would join Energy Northwest to develop new nuclear power generation. Amazon signed an agreement to pay for the initial feasibility phase to develop a small modular reactor project near the Northwest’s only commercial nuclear plant, the Columbia Generating Station.
The deal with Energy Northwest gives Amazon the right to buy electricity from the initial four modules, with a capacity of 320 megawatts.
Amazon officials could not be reached by the Herald.
The Port of Walla Walla’s role extends to selling the land, building a road, providing drinking water to the site and turning over all site assessments to the buyer.
The project will be subject to permitting and review by Walla Walla County and it is highly likely it will be reviewed under the Washington State Environmental Policy Act process.
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 12:36 PM.