Richland’s city council unanimously approved an option agreement with Atlas Agro for land for a data center at a Dec. 2 meeting. 

The agreement is for 275 acres of property at 2100 Horn Rapids Road, just north of Framatome. An option agreement doesn’t mean that Atlas Agro has bought the land. Instead, it gives the city a chance to evaluate the potential purchase and requires a nonrefundable fee of $250,000.  

Atlas Agro is proposing to build five separate data center buildings, each about 500,000 square feet, with a total cost of $500 million.  

This project aims to support the zero-carbon nitrate fertilizer plant that Atlas Agro has been working to build on Port of Benton land.  

“We don’t see a data center as a separate business, but as a partner that helps us build the necessary power and utility infrastructure for the site,” said Dan Holmes, Atlas Agro president for North America, during the meeting. “This approach helps us de-risk our project, it strengthens the financials and puts us on an expedited path to getting the fertilizer plant up and running.” 

The data center helps share the cost of putting in the infrastructure, he said. 

Both the fertilizer plant and the data center are dependent on a power line that the Bonneville Power Administration is planning to put in place to power those projects as well as future endeavors. 

If Atlas Agro buys the land from Richland for its data centers, the cost will come in at just under $24 million. The city also would get revenue from sales tax on the construction, annual property tax and electric utility occupation tax. 

Atlas Agro hopes to start construction in 2027, and the project is anticipated to create 100 jobs.  

Karl Dye, president and CEO of the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), spoke in support of the data center during the meeting, noting that an AI data center is in line with the newly announced Genesis Mission, a national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy and its 17 national laboratories – including the one in Richland – to build the world’s most powerful scientific platform to accelerate discovery, strengthen national security, and drive energy innovation.