Stevens shares updates on incentive negotiations, more

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Negotiations continue regarding incentives for the QTS data center that will be built in Van Wert and if all goes as planned, the community will soon learn how it will benefit from the project. That was the word from Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Brent Stevens at Monday night’s meeting of Van Wert City Council.

Steven said he’s hopeful that some sort of announcement on incentives and benefits to be provided by QTS will be presented to the council in mid-October or possibly late October.

“As we can all imagine, with a $10 billion project there is a tremendous amount of back and fourth with our lawyers and their lawyers,” he said.

Stevens also noted that if a community reinvestment area (CRA) agreement is required, a presentation would need to be made to the CRA board, then would have to sit with the Lincolnview school district for 14 days before being presented to Van Wert City Council for a vote. The site where the data center will be built is in the city of Van Wert, but is also in the Lincolnview school district.

During his presentation, Stevens said the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation is working to create an incentive oversight board that would work with the city and the county. The goal, he said, is to provide transparency with revenue and benefits coming into the community from the data center project.

Stevens said QTS representatives were in town two weeks ago and spoke with Lincolnview schools, Crestview and non-profit organizations as part of an outreach effort.  

Data center groundbreaking is expected to take place this fall.

Stevens also said he’s been talking with several landowners who are interested in optioning their property for possible future development and requesting annexation into the city. Those properties are located near the site where the data center will be built.

“I want to be real clear, it’s not to go out and get more data centers in the town, it’s to be able to serve the data center that’s coming here,” he said.

Stevens cited a 2026 study by Cushman & Wakefield of six major U.S. data center markets that shows firms in the data center ecosystem account for about 10 percent of new industrial leasing.

“The rule of thumb based on this Cushman & Wakefield study is for every 100 megawatts of a new data center capacity, there is associated roughly 365,000 square feet of space that is built that are not data centers, but want to be close to the data center,” he explained. “Electrical and cooling people like to build projects close to data centers so they have the opportunity to supply that data center as it moves forward. Fiber and telecom industries love to move in next to data centers.”

On a related note, City Auditor Erika Blackmore announced she has received the annexation petitions and will have them available for public inspection until October 26, as required by law.

“Anybody in the public can come and look at them, they’re original copies, wet ink papers,” she said.

Council President Thad Eikenbary announced that a public hearing on the annexation requests will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, October 26, prior to city council’s regular meeting that night.

Stevens also said the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation is in the process of selecting a firm to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the city and Van Wert County. He added its down to roughly three finalists.

“Strategic plans are super important but they’re even more important now based on what Van Wert is going to be looking at here in the next 10-15 years,” he said. “It’s going to be super important that we have a very detailed plan. This is not a plan that gets thrown together quick, this is a plan where there are many, many community engagement sessions where the community comes in and weighs in on what they see the needs are for the city and the county.”