KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne reports on stories in Overland Park, Johnson County and topics about government accountability. She's been reporting on data centers extensively on both sides of the state line. Share your story idea with Isabella.
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Another data center could be coming to the Kansas City area, with developers proposing a 20-story building located in the heart of downtown.
The developer, Revitalized Unlimited, submitted plans to demolish the Western Union Newspaper Building in the Quality Hill neighborhood. It's sparked strong opposition from neighbors and Kansas City historians.
"Why propose the data center at the site of this historic building?" Ethan Starr, executive director of Historic KC, said.
The former newspaper building has been in Kansas City for more than 100 years and was once at the forefront of getting information out to the community. That's what neighbors are doing now, sharing information about the company's plans to tear down the historic site and put a 20-story data center in its place.
The building was first built in 1900 and was officially recognized as a historic place on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. It's seen downtown Kansas City through more than a century of change.
"The question is not whether data centers will proliferate throughout our region," Starr said. "The question is: Is this national register-listed building the right site for such a use?"
Revitalization Unlimited, a Miami-based company, announced its purchase of the building in January 2026. It's currently used as a mixed office space. The company later submitted filings with the city to replace it with a 20-story data center with a coffee shop on the first floor.
"We must resist the false choice between economic development and historic preservation because truly, it has been the case that so much of the reinvestment and revitalization seen by the urban core has been historic preservation oriented," Starr said.
The data center would be 141,000 square feet, 384 feet tall, and data center operations would take up every floor.
Many downtown neighbors like Carnesciali aren't thrilled by the idea of a data center moving in.
"Why on that spot? Why a data center?" Carnesciali said. "We tend to support residential buildings in the skyline and things like that that provide a benefit to our community, but it's really hard to find any type of community benefit from a 20-story data center."
Neighbors are even more skeptical of the state and historical tax credits involved and whether the project will actually happen.
"It doesn't feel right," Carnesciali said. "It feels like a tax scheme. There's the potential that it doesn't happen, and then that the data center actually gets built."
With the project set to go before the Kansas City Planning Commission in August, neighbors have some questions for city leaders.
"When does it make sense to demolish an existing historical building that's already in use for something hypothetical that the neighborhood doesn't want?"
Revitalization Unlimited responded to KSHB 41 News' request for comment with a statement, which reads below.
We understand the concerns residents and neighbors have about the proposed project’s environmental impact. The building would be designed to generate its own power, so normal operations would not rely on Evergy’s grid or affect electricity costs for surrounding customers. It would also use a closed-loop cooling system that requires significantly less water than a traditional data center. Noise and heat were considered in the proposed design as well. Equipment would be placed above street level, and sound-dampening measures would be used. Any noise from normal operations would be comparable to standard equipment used in other high-rise buildings. Unlike traditional windowless data centers, the proposed building would include ground-floor retail space intended for a coffee shop or similar public-facing use. We are committed to sharing clear information as the proposal moves through the planning process.
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