Karis Data Center, Dubuque, Iowa

The company that looked at hundreds of acres of farmland east of Dubuque Regional Airport for a data center is Karis, a national real estate firm, emails obtained by the Telegraph Herald showed in June 2026. Dubuque County officials had declined to name it, but the records show Karis sent "site info for our proposed project east of the airport" to county zoning administrator Ben Kober on May 15, 2026.

The land discussed lies near Old Davenport Road between Laudeville Road and Feeney Road. Kober told KCRG that Karis had contacted the county in mid-May but had not applied; the Florida-based company also approached the city of Dubuque. Public records obtained by KCRG show the data center would need up to 3 million gallons of water to fill its closed-loop cooling system and up to 250,000 gallons a year after that, with Karis asking to connect to city water and sewer. The city says it will take no action on any data center until it has an ordinance.

Rumors of the land deal had already moved the county. After a packed zoning meeting, the planning and zoning commission unanimously asked for a halt, and on May 26, 2026 the supervisors voted 2 to 1 for a 12 month moratorium, lengthened from the 120 days auditor Keith Lucy had drafted. "I do not support data centers and I have said that in the past repeatedly," said Supervisor Ann McDonough, who moved the change; Wayne Kenniker voted no, saying the motion had not been reviewed by the county's lawyers. Kim Mangers, who lives near the site, said: "My house is worth zero. Zero, because nobody is going to buy my home."

Nearly 300 people came to the county's first town hall, at the Peosta Rec Center on June 23, and about 30 spoke on water quality, property values, utilities and the county's economic future. Stephanie Grutz, who owns The Health Spa in Peosta, said the moratorium was too short: "It's like a race to see who can throw these up the fastest without taking a pause and actually looking at the data." Matt Moore, a commercial airline pilot, said a day earlier: "I choose to live here because I want to live next to farms, not server farms." On July 13 airport director Todd Dalsing warned that heat plumes, vapors and cooling ponds near the airport could cause turbulence, low visibility and icing, while the Greater Dubuque Development Corporation presented a consultant's estimate of $6.2 billion in local economic impact and 400 permanent jobs. The supervisors instead agreed to ask the county attorney to hire outside counsel to explore a ban, with Kenniker saying: "Let's decide. I'm willing to decide."

By September Karis had turned to Peosta, where developer Jim Conlan said he and Karis Critical had already acquired at least 194 acres south of U.S. 20 off Cox Springs Road. "Build a strong ordinance," Conlan told a packed council work session on September 16. "We're not going away, so if the ordinance takes a year, it takes a year." In a city survey of nearly 300 Peosta residents, 87 percent said they did not support any data center, and the city may extend its own moratorium, due to expire in December.