MARANA, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Town of Marana has received applications to build a data center campus on hundreds of acres of land in North Marana.
Two applications were submitted to the town on Thursday, October 16, to use two sites located south of Pinal Airpark Road and west of I-10 for a data center campus, according to Marana’s Development Services Director, Jason Angell.
The applications were submitted by Lazarus and Silvyn, P.C., who are representing Fremont Peak Properties LLC, which is a Beale Infrastructure-owned company, according to Angell. Beale Infrastructure is the company developing Project Blue.
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According to Angell, the property owners are:
- Corp. Presiding Bishop of Church LDS
- Kai Family Tr97 & Kai Tr 97 S12 LLC
The two sites, which are adjacent to one another, are 300 acres each. Angell said the request is to build the campus on one or both of the 300-acre sites.
“They haven’t identified a specific number of buildings, but it’d be a series of buildings that are put up that store the servers and all of that that provide support for technology, as far as the cloud storage, AI, things of that nature,” he said.
In December 2024, the Marana town council approved a data center ordinance.
READ MORE HERE | Marana's data center ordinance
“Staff right now is reviewing the application against the ordinance requirements to make sure that it complies with all of the required information that has to be provided,” Angell explained.
From there, the two property owners will have to hold a neighborhood meeting. Property owners within 300 feet of the site will be notified.
It will be followed by public hearings. Property owners within 300 feet of the site will be notified via mail. There will also be public notices, which you can find here on the town’s website.
“It is brought before the planning commission and then based upon their recommendation, then it’ll go to the town council, where it is also a public hearing that takes place,” Angell said.
The applicant will need to show that the electric providers, Tucson Electric Power and Trico Electric, in this case, have enough power to serve the project in the proposed state and in the future. There is a similar requirement for water.
“In this case, we do understand that they are looking at an air-cooled system, so it’s not a water-cooled system, but there would still need to be even just general water usage for bathrooms, restrooms, facilities, general office use,” Angell said.
Angell did not have exact numbers yet on how many jobs this could bring to the area.
“As far as regular, full-time jobs - there’s not a lot of them, but the construction jobs that come with that are significant,” Angell said. “My understanding is that thousands of jobs are supported in the construction industry for projects like this.”
KGUN 9 will continue following this story.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
