A Texas company has formally signaled plans to build a data center in downtown Seattle, even as the city moves toward a moratorium that could impact the construction of such facilities.
Digital Realty of Austin, a real estate investment trust with more than 300 data centers worldwide, wants to demolish the building at 301 Virginia St. and replace it with a six-story structure: a data center on four floors plus a lab, office and retail space, permit filings show.
The proposal comes as the City Council weighs a one-year ban on new data centers, prompted by a wave of public concern over the AI industry’s demands on power, water and utility rates. On Wednesday, the council’s land use committee voted to send the measure to the full council.
The Puget Sound Business Journal, which first reported on the proposal, quoted a Digital Realty spokesperson describing it as “a highly connected, network-dense facility, not an AI data center.” The company told the publication it is still assessing the project’s power needs.
Whether the moratorium would apply to the project is unclear. Digital Realty submitted its filings May 29. As the council’s proposed resolution describes it, the ban would prohibit the city from filing, processing or approving applications for new data centers for a year.
The resolution language cites the growth in the use of AI and notes that new data centers “require great amounts of electricity for operation, resulting in significant increases in demand for electricity and requiring investment in new infrastructure to meet demand.”
It’s part of a national backlash against the data center boom, as communities push to slow projects over concerns about power and water use.
Digital Realty is not new to the neighborhood. The company already operates a colocation data center in the 34-story Westin Building at 2001 Sixth Ave. Heat from the building’s data centers is piped across the street to help warm Amazon’s offices. That project is part of a district-energy system set up with Clise Properties, which also owns the 301 Virginia St. site.
Formerly a Bed Bath & Beyond store, the building is currently home to Cannonball Arts, a contemporary art and music venue from the producers of the Bumbershoot festival.
