Software and data hosting company Patmos, which bills itself as a free speech-driven alternative to big tech companies, announced in a news release Thursday that the company will repurpose the 400,000-square foot former Star building at 1601 McGee St. into its flagship data center as part of a $1 billion project.
The old printing press will become a 100-plus megawatt “AI innovation facility.” Patmos has existing data centers in Kansas City, Dallas and Phoenix, and the new expansion will allow the company to keep up with client demand, the release says.
“In a world where Big Tech is investing over $20 million per (megawatt) to stand up new data centers years down the road, the infrastructure already in this building allows us to build at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time,” Joe Morgan, chief infrastructure officer for Patmos, said in a statement. “By breathing new life into historic structures, we can create sustainable and innovative AI data centers. Repurposing these buildings not only preserves architectural heritage but also reduces the environmental impact of new construction. These revitalized spaces can become hubs of technological advancement, powering the future of AI while honoring the past.”
The release says Patmos expects to have a small piece of the system’s capacity online next month and a larger portion within 18 months.
The Star’s $200 million glass and copper, two block-long building opened in 2006 and featured four state-of-the-art printing presses in a growing downtown. The press printed The Star and other national and local papers.
Star employees consolidated into the building in 2018 ahead of a redevelopment of the paper’s historic headquarters, nearby at 1729 Grand Blvd., into a mixed-use building.
But The Star left the building in 2021 as part of its parent company’s bankruptcy reorganization. The Star’s office is now in Crown Center, and printing is done in Des Moines.
The Star sold the McGee Street building in 2019 to the Privitera family’s Ambassador Hospitality, LLC, which Jackson County records still list as the owner, for $30.1 million.
Officials have previously eyed the Star building site for a future downtown Royal baseball stadium. In April, Jackson County voters soundly rejected a tax that would have helped pay for a stadium on that site.
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