Amazon planning data center in Montgomery County

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Amazon is planning to build a data center north of Interstate 70 in Montgomery County.

The retail and cloud computing giant has secured land and now needs a building permit from the county for its data center between New Florence and High Hill, said Steve Etcher with the Greater Montgomery County Economic Development Council. The site will be about 1,000 acres, he said.

The county's economic development council has spent months working to review the site and ensure the plan "supports smart and responsible growth, and positions the region for long-term success," the organization says in a news release.

The release says Amazon is "in the final stages" of evaluating the site.

An Amazon spokesperson wrote in response to questions that the project is still too early to provide a timeline, cost and job numbers.

Etcher said the company has committed to hundreds of permanent jobs when the project is complete. Power would come from Ameren Missouri under its "large load tariff," which is meant to shield other customers from cost increases associated with scaling up data centers.

The Montgomery County Public Water District will serve the facility's significant water needs, and Etcher said the utility has the capacity to serve the data center.

Data center projects have come under fire across the country from people who say they suck up power and water without driving economic development. The creation of data centers has been driven by the need for more computing power and storage as digital technology grows.