KENNEWICK — Advance Phase LLC may not be a familiar name in Southeast Washington, but its $4.8 billion plan to build a cluster of 16 data centers at Wallula Gap promises to raise its profile.
The Port of Walla Walla Commission is considering selling 500 acres at Wallula Gap Business Park to Advance Phase for $32 million.
The Wallula Gap data center complex would rival the ones developed by Amazon Web Services in neighboring Morrow and Umatilla counties on the Oregon side of the state border.
The Washington site is within a 1,900-acre heavy industry site about 10 miles east of Pasco, near Wallula Junction off Highway 12.
Advance Phase would invest $4.8 billion in new data centers and employ 320, according to a project description on the port commission’s agenda.
The commission is set to consider the sale during its meeting on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Walla Walla.
Port staff began negotiating with Advance Phase a year ago under the code name “Project Tree. “
The deal easily dwarfs all prior economic development projects in the region and could be transformative to Walla Walla County, population 63,100.
In 2024, the combined assessed value of all property in the county was about $10 billion. The data center represents a 48% expansion of the county’s base.
16 data centers
Advance Phase intends to build its data centers in four phases of 125 acres each, records show.
Each phase would see construction of four 215,000-square-foot buildings for a total of more than 3.4 million square feet contained in 16 buildings.
Advance Phase is described as “an American multinational technology company, engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence services.”
The true identity of “Advance Phase LLC” is something of a mystery.
There is no record of Advance Phase in state or federal corporation databases, including the Securities and Exchange Commission site that would show if it ever tried to raise funds from investors.
A copy of the letter it submitted to the port that might have shed light on its operations was not immediately available.
The company “may” provide further information about itself after the port signs off on the land sale, the commission agenda said.
Advance would have one year to close the deal. The port reserves the right to repurchase half the property for half the original sale price if Advance fails to begin construction in a reasonable amount of time.
Northeast Oregon neighbors
Amazon has about a dozen data centers in the area, making Eastern Oregon its largest data center cluster after northern Virginia.
Five data centers planned in Boardman, about 50 miles southwest of the Tri-Cities, were supported by tax breaks the Oregonian newspaper calculated were worth $1 billion.
It is unclear what if any tax breaks or other incentives are being offered in Washington state, or how electricity will be supplied to the data centers.
The Department of Commerce noted that there are tax incentives to support data center projects. Beyond that, the department has provided no funding support.
Port officials could not be reached Monday about the proposed project.
Karl Dye, president of the Tri-Cities Development Council, said he was not familiar with Advance Phase.
If the project advances, Advance Phase will be a neighbor to Rockwool USA, which is advancing plans to build a $175 million plant to turn volcanic rock into insulation at the industrial park.
Rockwool has an $8.75 million deal to buy 250 acres near the data center property and would apparently share access from Highway 12.
Rockwool disclosed its plans for a fifth North American manufacturing plant in March.
Its Eastern Washington plant will serve as a launch pad to expand on the West Coast. It makes insulation by melting rock and spinning it into insulation in an industrial process that resembles a cotton candy machine.
Rockwool USA is based in Kearneyville, W.Va., and is an arm of Rockwool Group, based in Denmark.
