Hot on the heels of two other data center proposals for the Tri-Cities area is a plan for one in West Richland.

A commercial real estate developer confirmed it is interested in developing farmland in the 7,600-acre Lewis & Clark Ranch area in West Richland that’s earmarked for future development.

“Trammell Crow Company is studying the feasibility to develop a portion of the Lewis and Clark land. Once our development plans are finalized, we will engage with the city of West Richland and the local community,” the company said in a statement to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

West Richland Mayor Brent Gerry mentioned Trammell Crow’s interest in developing a data center at an Oct. 15 Port of Benton Commission meeting while discussing other projects planned for the Lewis & Clark Ranch development.

The data center would be situated on 500 acres to start and grow to 1,000 acres in total, and the company is working through its due diligence and purchase and sale agreement with landowner Frank Tiegs LLC, the mayor said during the meeting.

The city of West Richland declined to comment further about the project.

The Dallas, Texas-based Trammell Crow is a global commercial real estate developer which serves users and investors in data center projects and more. As of Sept. 30, the company said it had $18.9 billion in projects in process and $11.5 billion in its pipeline.

Earlier this year, West Richland’s city council voted to allow data centers to be built in areas zoned as urban transition and light industrial. Frank Tiegs LLC, which owns the Lewis & Clark Ranch land, requested the zoning change.

Benton Rural Electric Association, the electricity provider for West Richland, is talking with a few different prospective data center developers, including the one West Richland has been working with, said Troy Berglund, deputy general manager and vice president of member relationships at Benton REA. 

He noted that the member-owned electric cooperative gets contacted on a monthly basis about data centers. 

Benton REA has agreements in place to cover costs and protect its members’ interests. These agreements are simply about cost recovery with an upfront deposit, Berglund said. They don’t mean that a data center is coming to the area, but he said that the data center Benton REA is currently working with is anxious to move forward with the project. 

The biggest hurdle to overcome is power, Berglund said. This involves working with Bonneville Power Administration to analyze the capacity of the transmission system and design the necessary power lines to connect with the potential project. Moving forward with a data center would involve sizeable investments in the transmission system, he said.

On the power side, Benton REA said it will work with potential data centers to secure power. Berglund said that sometimes data centers bring their own power supply, while in other cases, Benton REA might help them find power sources. 

In 2024, an undisclosed American technology company proposed a data center campus in Wallula. The company, referred to as Advance Phase LLC, would buy 500 acres from the Port of Walla Walla for $32.5 million and build out a data center campus over four phases.

And in October, Swiss fertilizer company Atlas Agro proposed building and operating five 500,000-square-foot data centers on Richland land. The project would cost $500 million and be built on 275 acres.