KSHB 41 reporter Charlie Keegan covers politics in Kansas, Missouri and at the local level. Share your story idea with Charlie.
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The boom of data center construction across Kansas City is set to continue, including the latest project that includes a new arrangement with Evergy for power.
On Thursday, Google revealed that it is the customer behind a development dubbed Project Mica, located near the northeast corner of the Interstate 435 and U.S. Highway 169 interchange in the Northland.
Google was rumored to be the global tech company behind Project Mica, a 500-acre campus in the Northland, as recently as August 2025.
The company broke ground on a $1 billion data center in March 2024, east of Interstate 435 near Worlds of Fun. Construction continues at the site.
To help finance the second data center, Port KC authorized up to $10 billion in taxable revenue bonds in July 2025. Other incentives included a 25-year, 75 percent exemption on property taxes, as well as 100 percent exemptions on local and state sales taxes for construction materials and equipment.
In exchange, Google committed to a $1.5 million contribution to the Smithville School District and $250,000 toward the Northland Career Center, with both payments being made upfront.
“We have been proud to call Missouri home since we broke ground on our first data center campus in the state in 2024, which is still under construction,” Trystine Payfer, Google’s regional head of data center public affairs, said Thursday in a news release. “We’re thrilled to confirm we are continuing our growth with another data center campus in Kansas City.”
Payfer said the data center infrastructure will “support economic growth for the area, power Google’s services that Missourians and local businesses use daily, and drive scientific breakthroughs that directly impact our customers.”
While construction is already underway on the second data center, Payfer declined to provide a timeline on when the facility would be complete, citing labor availability, construction schedules, weather and supply chain timing. Payfer did say that their data centers usually have schedules ranging from 18 to 24 months.
“When we are looking to grow our portfolio, we look for robust infrastructure, a strong pool of talent, and local partners who want to work together,” Payfer said. “All of which, we have already found and experienced with our first data center project in Kansas City, along with a strong community and local leadership that has been great to work with.”
Second data center comes with new power arrangement with Evergy
Payfer says that under an agreement with Evergy, the Kansas City region’s largest electricity provider, Google “will cover the full energy costs associated with powering both of the Google data center campuses” as part of its Capacity Commitment Framework.
An Evergy spokesperson said Thursday that the utility established a new rate in 2025, which “ensures data centers pay their fair share and benefits existing Evergy customers.”
The spokesperson said Google will be the first customer to qualify for the new rate, called the Large Load Power Tariff. The rate was established to support the growth of electric customers with 75 megawatts or more of monthly peak power demand. The rate plan was approved in November 2025 by the Missouri Public Service Commission. The Kansas Corporation Commission approved a similar rate plan in November.
Under the rate, Evergy requires data centers to sign long-term contracts that carry “significant early cancellation penalties.” The professions also require data centers to pay “all direct costs” for service to the centers, and pay a premium rate.
Evergy says that the premium rate is higher than those paid by existing large customers to help cover new generation and transmission needs, while making sure existing customers don’t bear the additional costs.
“We are excited about Google’s newly announced data center campus, which supports the infrastructure and economy of the future for Kansas City and the region,” the Evergy spokesperson said.
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