INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County, including Independence. Share your story idea with Tod.
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The Independence City Council postponed making a decision related to an ordinance to bring a second data center to the Little Blue Valley.
The council agreed Monday to delay voting on a resolution approving the assignment of a leasehold interest in the property located at 2500 South Little Blue Parkway. It will be brought up again on Nov. 2.
Residents strongly opposed the sprawling 400-acre data center after it was announced in December 2025, but the city council ultimately approved the Nebius project.
Now, Patmos — which has operated a data center in the former Kansas City Star Press Pavilion, the glass building that once housed the paper’s printing press downtown, since May 2024 — intends to build a second data center a few miles south of the controversial project.
Patmos applied for a building permit in June 2026 to place a 100-megawatt, 285,000-square-foot data center in the EastGate Commerce Center.
NorthPoint Development leases the industrial center from the city, which approved Chapter 100 Bonds for the industrial park in May 2022.
It currently houses Arco business offices for the nearby Nebius hyperscale AI data factory development, the Fort Osage School District’s Fort Connect classrooms, and the Community Services League’s EastGate Career Hub, a workforce development space.
Part of the lease gives NorthPoint the right to “assign or transfer its interests” in part or all of the building, which it seeks to do in selling space to Patmos. The deal is expected to close Nov. 12, pending city approval.
The lease agreement does not permit the city to “unreasonably” withhold, condition or delay such a transfer if the assignee, in this case Patmos, can demonstrate “sufficient experience and a net worth sufficient to complete and operate the project.”
Patmos envisions starting with a 17.5-megawatt data center, which would be located on the east side of Little Blue Parkway.
It’s not subject to the newly adopted zoning rules Independence adopted regarding data centers, because the project was grandfathered in before the city’s moratorium — thus, the council’s hands were tied with respect to this project.
In fact, after the city’s controversial approval of the Nebius project in March 2026, the Patmos application prompted the moratorium and a subsequent review of city zoning laws to better manage future data center projects in the city.
The Patmos project will include six “muffled” backup generators and will use less than 10,000 gallons of city water per day, according to the company’s presentation to the city.
Founded in 2021, Patmos is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
It co-locates with Nebius at the former KC Star printing press and also operates locations in Phoenix and Dallas. The company has another 20-megawatt facility under contract in Fairfield, Alabama.
A group of Independence residents sued Nebius, the city and a third party planning to build power generation for the project. There is a hearing on Oct. 22 in the case.
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