Boone approves site plan for two 125,000-square-foot data centers. Ames Tribune Updated Oct. 20, 2026, 3:01 p.m. CT * The Boone City Council approved a site plan for a Lightedge data center and a memorandum of understanding. * The agreement limits Lightedge's monthly water use and requires the company to fund its own utility upgrades. * The plan includes two 125,000-square-foot buildings, but officials note the project is not yet a final deal. Boone is moving forward with a local company's plan to build a data center after approving a site plan and specific limitations. Des Moines-based Lightedge signed a letter of intent with the Boone County Economic Growth Corporation in September to purchase 10 acres of land in the Boone Business Park south of Highway 30 and Walmart. The planned colocation facilities are expected to house computer servers and networking equipment to process data for banks, hospitals, law enforcement and local businesses. The City Council approved Lightedge's Boone site plan on Monday, Oct. 19. It includes two buildings at 1920 Lakewood Drive, south of the Cobblestone's Inn & Suites Hotel. Each building would be 125,000 square feet with office space, computer rooms, and support space, and loading docks. The council also approved a memorandum of understanding with Lightedge that limits tax incentives. The agreement required the company "(to not) seek or request any property tax abatement, tax increment financing, rebate of property taxes, or other property tax incentive from the City of Boone that would reduce the property taxes." The agreement also detailed several utility, water, light and sound requirements. Boone's memorandum is not a final agreement with Lightedge, the company's Senior Vice President of Data Center Development Mike McDaniel said during Monday's meeting. The company plans to "better specify those MOU items into an actual development agreement," he said. "This is not a done deal," Mayor Dave Casotti told residents on Monday, emphasizing that Boone is only one of several options Lightedge is exploring. Many residents are still passionate about data centers. Casotti said the council did not allow public comment on Monday because it heard from residents at two previous meetings and a public forum on Oct. 15. Boone residents shared their thoughts in a public comment period on Oct. 5, which lasted almost 30 minutes. Opinions were split, with several against and in favor of the data proposal. Residents also signed up to speak Monday but were not allowed since the data center site plan was an agenda item without a public hearing. A few residents left the meeting once they were told they couldn't comment. What is the utility agreement? Lightedge will fully fund all utility upgrades for the data center and pay a share for improvements that "benefit the broader system," according to city documents. Casotti said the council and city staff spent the last two months doing research and also toured Lightedge's Altoona facility. The mayor said Lightedge's use of water and power are "not an issue." Alliant Energy, the facility's would-be electric utility provider, told Boone officials they "can handle it" without raising residential rates, Casotti said. "I know everybody's passionate about that subject," Casotti said. "We're passionate about it as well. We would not do something for Boone that would harm the economy, the environment, any of that." Will Boone limit Lightedge's water use for its data centers? Lightedge's monthly water use will be limited to 75,000 gallons, equivalent to five five-person households. McDaniel said the specific amount is more of a "safety net." "Our primary uses of water are going to be domestic: water, toilets, a lot of cleaning to keep a very clean facility," McDaniel said. "We put what we think is an adequate number based on the domestic water uses for the facility, and we will further refine that through the development agreement." McDaniel said the facilities will use a "closed loop system" to circulate water and transfer heat without exposure to the outside. Data center's noise will be monitored in Boone. A permanent acoustic monitoring system will be installed on site to notify Boone officials if sound levels exceed the city's restrictions. Boone will require Lightedge to file a report with the city within 10 days explaining why noise levels were high, and corrective action will be required within 30 days. Lightedge's data center will be built in four phases. Phase one would construct the eastern portion of the northmost building, about 71,300 square feet containing office space, the loading dock, one computer room and associated support spaces. The second phase would build out the remaining 53,700 of the north building. The third and fourth phases would follow a similar plan for a building to the south. At-large Councilmember Linda Williamson said Monday that there is a "big difference" between large, hyperscale data centers and the colocation facility Lightedge is proposing, which is more of a "storage warehouse." Ward 4's Terry Moorman reminded residents the approved site plan and MOU doesn't mean the data centers will built in Boone. "It's not like tomorrow we're going to be out there with excavators and stuff to start to build this building," Moorman said. "All we did is clear the path." Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached [email protected] Deal of the Day Recommendations are independently chosen by our editors. Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. More Local Stories

LightEdge plans colocation data center in Boone, Iowa, eyeing up to 46MW. 19 Oct 2026 By: IDCNOVA Region: North America US colocation provider LightEdge is advancing plans to develop a new data center facility in Boone, Iowa, roughly 48 miles northwest of Des Moines, as the company deepens its footprint in its home state amid sustained demand for colocation capacity across the Midwest. The Boone County Economic Growth Corporation (BCEGC) recently signed a Letter of Intent with LightEdge for the purchase of ten acres of land in the Boone Business Park, where the company intends to build a colocation data center. Through an entity called Edge Boone LLC, LightEdge is looking to develop the facility at 1920 Lakewood Drive. The company has submitted a site plan to the City of Boone, and the city's planning and zoning commission has reviewed and approved it for recommendation to the city council. LightEdge has said it will not seek any tax incentives from the city for the project. Brenda Dreyer, executive director of the BCEGC, described the proposal as a significant opportunity for the community, noting that the project would sit on land developed for industrial purposes more than 20 years ago, make use of existing infrastructure, and provide new employment and tax-base opportunities. She added that BCEGC and LightEdge are committed to answering residents' questions directly and openly throughout the process. Full details of the project have not been disclosed. On its website, LightEdge said utility company Alliant has indicated that up to 46MW could ultimately be available at the site. The company said it would begin with a much smaller power load that could gradually scale over many years or even decades, depending on customer demand, and that whether the facility ever reaches 46MW, and how long that would take, has not been determined. LightEdge also said the facility will use a closed-loop cooling system to reduce water consumption. The project comes as colocation operators continue to expand in secondary and tertiary markets to capture demand from enterprises and hyperscalers seeking capacity outside major metro hubs. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Des Moines, LightEdge was acquired by GI Partners from the Anschutz Corporation in September 2021 and operates more than a dozen data centers across Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Arizona, California, Minnesota, and North Carolina. The company runs two data centers in the Altoona area of Des Moines, totaling 6.1MW of capacity across 40,000 square feet of white space, and in April acquired a 3MW data center in Kansas City, Missouri, that reportedly arrived fully pre-leased.