Project Catalyst (Alcove Development) data center, Osawatomie, Kansas

Project Catalyst is Alcove Development's plan for a data center campus at Osawatomie, in Miami County, Kansas, first set out on about 115 acres of land the city acquired from the state of Kansas. It has since grown to 283 acres and a 500 megawatt, multi-phase campus, after Alcove added a privately owned tract next door.

The city council signed off on a pre-development agreement in January 2026 giving Alcove the exclusive right to develop the site for three years, and the city agreed not to market it to anyone else. Alcove, based in Lawrence, mostly builds housing and has never developed a data center. The agreement offers a 50 percent property tax abatement for 10 years and industrial revenue bonds, and commits the city to supply a million gallons of water a day and 150 megawatts of power. The city says about 100 development leads for the Northland property were pursued between 2007 and 2025, and none of them led to construction. About 80 percent of the city's tax base is residential property. "One of the things we have not been able to successfully do is land a big commercial development," said City Manager Bret Glendening.

Alcove says the city would receive $30 million or more a year, Miami County more than $10 million and the Osawatomie school district, USD 367, more than $10 million in property tax. It says the campus will be air cooled, with day-to-day water use limited to restrooms and handwashing, and that all new transmission, substation upgrades and any generation it needs will be paid for by the project. KCUR reported that the city would supply 80,000 gallons a day for cooling, about 10 percent of its usual production, and that all seven buildings would employ about 90 people. "They're just going to sit on the edge of town and print money for the city," said Charles Tinsley, a vice president of MDH Partners, the Atlanta firm financing the proposal.

Troy Harp, who lives next to the site, fears the developer will tap the natural gas pipeline on his property for a power station. In early June he began a petition to limit the project's scale. "It's so small, the resources are so limited, and it's just something that's not the right fit for this town," he said. Mayor Nick Hampson said he first saw Alcove's press release announcing that Project Catalyst would "move forward" on a Friday morning, and that no applications had been filed and no permits pulled. At the June 25, 2026 council meeting with the developer, comments were limited to three minutes and questions had to be sent in advance; resident Lee Brewer was escorted out by police, and Glendening said Brewer "elected not to follow the rules."

The council meeting with the developer stretched for four hours, and residents asked whether their water would run dry, whether they would still have enough electricity to heat their homes, and whether the hum of the servers would disturb patients at the state mental hospital in town.

Miami County's moratorium on data centers does not reach the site, because it is inside the city limits. The city planning commission is now weighing whether to recommend the project to the council, and the developers would still have to interest a builder. "This town has to do something," said John Fletcher, a retired engineer who volunteers at the city historical museum, "or it's probably going to go under."