State and local leaders touted economic benefits and innovation as they helped break ground on a large-scale data center near Tulsa Thursday.
Beale Infrastructure is the developer behind a $1 billion data center known as Project Clydesdale. The 500-acre facility — planned for East 76th Street North and North Sheridan Road — will be used for digital cloud storage. Tulsa County Commissioners unanimously approved the project in September.
Lauren Harvey, development director for Beale Infrastructure, said the company worked closely with the City of Tulsa to map out how the data center would impact local utilities, including if the city’s water system can handle the data center’s peak usage — about 5 or 6 million gallons, according to the city.
Speaking at a community meeting earlier this month, Public Works Director Terry Ball said Tulsa currently treats about 105 million gallons of water per day but has the capacity to treat up to 210 million gallons a day.
“What we found working with the City of Tulsa is that they have substantial capacity,” said Harvey. “Hundreds of millions (of) gallons of extra capacity, so we were able to basically have no negative impact on that existing capacity with our planned usage.”
Data centers in Tulsa have been a hot topic in recent months. Developers have promoted job creation and increased tax revenue, though short on specifics — but residents have complained about a lack of transparency around the projects and voiced concerns about potential impacts to their utility bills.
Tulsa County Commissioner Stan Sallee attended Thursday’s groundbreaking and said public notices about the project were sent to the masses.
“There was no behind the scenes deal on this,” Sallee said.
Sallee said the data center will generate $2 million in tax revenue each year for Tulsa County, Owasso Public Schools and others once operational. Construction on the campus is expected to take at least five years.
Clydesdale is one of several large-scale data centers being developed in the Tulsa area by Beale Infrastructure. Earlier this week, the company held an open house in Coweta for residents to learn more about Project Atlas, planned for 16192 Highway 51B, just south of Coweta and east of Highway 72. Nearly 100 people showed up, some with protest signs.
A third data center, known as Project Anthem, is planned for the Fair Oaks Industrial Plant off 11th Street near the Creek Turnpike, not far from the AB Jewell Water Treatment Plant. The company behind the $800 million project has not been named publicly.
Lieutenant Gov. Matt Pinnell attended Thursday’s groundbreaking and spoke about the increase in data centers across the region.
“Over the next few years, we’ll have a clearer picture of how many data centers are in Oklahoma and how many frankly, we can handle,” said Pinnell. “At the end of the day I think it is a great thing for the state, and it will provide some very high-paying jobs for homegrown boys and girls we are raising here in the state.”
This story includes information from notes taken by Tulsa Documenter Ray’chel Wilson at Mayor Monroe Nichols’ Oct. 13 community conversation. If you’re interested in becoming a Documenter visit us at tulsaflyer.org/documenters.
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