Developer duel unfolding around Weld County data center
Weld County commissioners approved Global AI’s proposed 41-acre data center on the former Kodak and Carestream campus outside Greeley. A citizen coalition has filed petitions seeking to let voters overturn the approval, though the effort appears tied in part to competing developer Broe Real Estate Group’s adjacent development plans.
Weld County commissioners unanimously approved Global AI’s proposed data center on a 41-acre former Eastman Kodak and Carestream Health campus outside Greeley. The facility would initially use 27.5 megawatts supplied by Poudre Valley REA, with potential expansion to 1 gigawatt, and is projected to create 1,500 construction jobs and 200 permanent positions. Its permit includes water-use, noise-monitoring and decommissioning requirements.
The coalition Protect Our Water and Energy Resources has filed two petitions seeking to place the approval and similar future decisions before voters. Each petition requires 9,103 valid signatures. The article reports that Dean Brown, a Broe Real Estate Group executive whose company owns adjacent land planned for residential and commercial development, is listed on the petition, raising questions about whether competition between developers is driving the challenge. The legality of referring the quasi-judicial approval to voters is also uncertain following a Weld County District Court ruling involving another Greeley zoning decision.