Leaders in many Iowa communities are struggling with whether to support or block data center development.
The Marshalltown City Council enacted a four-month moratorium on data center construction last month, at the same meeting where Amir Atefi, CEO of Swarm Systems, made a presentation proposing a $350-million data center.
Atefi says once the moratorium expires in late November, he’ll proceed with trying to buy the land.
“While we disagree with the read of some of the city council members of how the moratorium prevents them from proceeding on a land sale, that is their choice and we respect the choice,” Atefi says. “If they are open to proceeding with the land sale at the end of November when the moratorium is lifted, then we’re ready to move forward as well.”
City council member Greg Nichols says he did some research on Atefi and contacted the mayor of another community where he’s has worked on other projects.
“The mayor of Elk Grove, Illinois has worked with Amir and just swears by him as somebody that’ll get a quality job done right and if he tells you he’s going to do something, that’s the way he’s going to do it,” Nichols says. “We’ll all be happy in the end.”
Swarm Systems’ offer on the land expired last week, but Marshalltown Mayor Mike Ladehoff does not believe negotiations with the company are over.
“All real estate offers expire and the council did not take action on it,” Ladehoff says. “In my own opinion, at least the city council should have looked at it. If you want to vote up or down on it, that’s fine. It’s a land acquisition.”
Atefi says his company would still like to buy the land and start the needed research to make sure it’s the right spot for them to build.
“We need to study whether or not the existing infrastructure can support our large load and that we are able to provide the additional security,” Atefi says, “and basically pay for and pay for our way of any upgrade that needs to be done before the structure can support our project.”
Without owning any land, he says Swarm Systems cannot start those conversations with Alliant Energy.
(Zach Tomesch, KFJB, Marshalltown)