FROM THE DESK OF DAVID STEWART: A Letter to Our Community
10/19/2026
Building Data Center Together
For nearly two decades, MidAmerica Industrial Park has been home to one of the world's largest data center campuses. In that time, we've learned a simple truth: this kind of growth only works when it works for everyone – the companies that invest here and the community that hosts them.
As we look ahead to the next phase of data center development at MAIP, including Lambda’s recently announced plans to build a new data center, we want to share how we approach this work and the commitment that guides it.
PARTNERSHIP, NOT JUST PERMISSION
Before any deal is shaped, we start by understanding what our community needs and where we have limitations - roads, water, schools, housing and emergency services. That information shapes the discussion from the beginning, not after the fact. Our local leaders are always treated as partners at the table, not as a formality to work around.
That approach guided our recent conversations with Lambda. Those discussions included local leaders and focused on community priorities and the project’s long-term impact.
INFRASTRUCTURE THAT BENEFITS EVERYONE
Growth on this scale puts real demands on shared infrastructure – power, water and roads. Our approach is to make sure that as these systems expand to serve new development, they get stronger for the whole community, too. That means:
- Heavy-haul routes and road capacity planned before construction begins.
- Noise standards set in advance – written into agreements from day one.
- Power, water and utility planning that accounts for years of growth, not just the next project.
These are the MidAmerica standards we hold ourselves to.
BENEFITS YOU CAN POINT TO
We believe a good deal is one a community can still measure years later. Not a groundbreaking photo op, but a school budget line, a repaved road or a water system upgrade that outlasts any single project.
Pryor Public Schools is the clearest example we have. Google's investment here has grown the local tax base significantly, enough that the district is now funded by local revenue rather than state funding. That has meant higher teacher pay and expanded programs and facilities for our kids.
Lambda’s planned investment is expected to provide another measurable benefit. Based on current rates, the project is expected to generate an estimated $500 million in taxes over the next 10 years, with revenue supporting schools, public services and other local priorities. It is also expected to create up to 1,000 construction jobs and up to 100 permanent positions.
We're also honest about where the near-term value comes from: local contractors and tradespeople doing the construction work, and the ongoing maintenance jobs that follow.
A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP
MidAmerica isn't a single-site host - we're an industrial park built for heavy industry, with the zoning and utility planning to match, long before the first data center arrived here in 2007. That history matters because it means growth here happens on infrastructure designed to absorb it, in a place already built for this kind of investment.
But the deeper reason this has worked for almost 20 years isn't the zoning. It's that we treat community trust the way we treat any other piece of infrastructure: something built over time and re-earned with every new project.
As we take on the next wave of development, that commitment doesn't change. We'll keep bringing the data first, setting our own standards before they're demanded, and measuring success by what our community can still point to a decade from now.
At MidAmerica we want to help shape the future in a way that is community driven.
Thank you for being part of it.
David Stewart
Chief Administrative Officer, MidAmerica Industrial Park