When a data center is proposed in your community, the conversation typically starts with a press release and ends with a ribbon cutting – and residents may not be aware of everything that happens in between. We think that’s the wrong way to build. This is our attempt to explain the whole process, plainly, including the parts that are complicated.
Data centers are large buildings full of computers and equipment that store and process digital information for businesses, hospitals, financial institutions, government agencies, and the everyday apps people rely on. They are significant developments that require major investments, and as a result they come with real questions about power, water, jobs, taxes, and quality of life.
Those questions deserve real answers.
What follows is a walk through every major phase of data center development. After each phase, you’ll find a section on how Beale specifically approaches that stage – not what we aspire to, but what we’ve committed to in writing, in public agreements, in the communities where we’re building.
The goal is not a permit. The goal is that the community looks at what was built years from now and considers it an asset.
1. Planning and Site Selection
Every data center project starts with a team evaluating land. They’re looking for a site with access to reliable electricity, fiber internet connections already in the ground, and land that’s safe from flooding and seismic risk.
This phase also involves early conversations with the local electric utility. The utility needs to determine whether the existing grid can support that load, and if not, what upgrades would be required. That process, called an interconnection study, can take a year or more on its own. Environmental assessments happen here too-soil and groundwater testing, habitat surveys, stormwater analysis. The goal is to understand the feasibility of building on the land is before committing to develop it.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
We evaluate communities – not just sites.
Beale looks for communities where new infrastructure investment, utility upgrades, tax revenue, construction activity, and long-term employment can have a real and meaningful impact. That’s a different starting point than simply finding cheap land near a power line.
On power: Beale funds the grid infrastructure its projects require. Substations, transmission upgrades, and interconnection work are paid for by Beale, not by local ratepayers. In several communities, those upgrades will improve grid reliability for the surrounding area – not just for the Beale campus.
On water: We take water use seriously because it deserves to be taken seriously. Every Beale project’s water use is specific, metered, reported to state regulators, and capped. The water plan and all regulatory filings are publicly available.
2. Permits, Zoning & Community Agreements
This is the phase that matters most for local leaders, residents, and community members, and the one where engagement is most likely to produce real results. Data centers require zoning approvals from the city or county. If the land isn’t already zoned for industrial or large commercial use, the developer must apply for a rezoning – a change that requires a public hearing.
These hearings are legally required to be open to the public. Neighbors can submit written comments, speak at the hearing, and ask specific questions of the developer and planning staff. Local elected officials have a formal role at this stage, both in shaping what gets approved and in ensuring that the terms of any approval are specific and enforceable.
A Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) is a written contract between the developer and the host community — local government, or community organizations working with local government – that specifies what the company commits to: local hiring targets, school or STEM funding, noise and lighting standards, landscaping requirements, regular community liaison meetings. Agreements like this matter because they are enforceable, not just declared.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
Our commitments are public, contractual, and measurable.
Beale doesn’t make community promises in press releases and then let them fade. Our commitments are written into binding performance agreements and community benefit agreements with the host community – enforceable by the community itself, not just by us.
In Pima County, Arizona, our performance agreement requires a minimum of 75 full-time employees at an average salary of at least $75,000, with a financial penalty of $12,500 per missing position if we fall short. Construction is committed to prioritizing local union and trade labor. The Memorandum of Agreement with Pima County includes $5 million for STEM education and $10 million for community funding initiatives. These figures come from the signed agreement, not from our marketing.
We also participate in every public hearing where communities have a formal opportunity to weigh in. In Claremore, Oklahoma, that meant attending public hearings across seven separate taxing districts before any tax agreement was finalized.
For local officials: the structure of our agreements is designed so that commitments can be monitored and enforced without requiring legal action. Annual compliance reports are public. Penalty provisions are written in. We welcome that accountability.
Understanding Tax Incentive Agreements
Tax incentives come up in almost every data center development, and they deserve a straightforward explanation rather than a defensive one. Here is the plain-English version.
A tax incentive is a deal – not a gift. The community agrees to reduce or defer a specific tax for a defined period. The company agrees to deliver something in return: build the project, hire workers, fund infrastructure, contribute to schools. Whether it’s a good deal or a poor one depends entirely on how the agreement is written.
Read our plain English guide on tax incentives: Tax Breaks for Big Projects: The Plain-English Version.
3. Design & Engineering
After permits are secured, engineers and architects produce the detailed plans for the building and all its systems. This is where the physical relationship between the facility and its neighbors gets determined. Some of the questions include:
- How far is the building set back from the property line?
- Where are the loudest pieces of equipment placed?
- How tall are the screening walls?
- What trees go in the buffer zone, and how large are they at planting?
Noise is one of the most common and legitimate concerns residents raise. Data centers run large cooling fans. Backup diesel generators are tested under full load roughly once a month and can be very loud for 30 to 60 minutes. Engineers are required to conduct a noise impact study that models how sound travels from the building to nearby properties. Those results can and should be written into zoning conditions as enforceable limits at the property line.
Visual screening, lighting, traffic circulation, and landscaping are also finalized at this stage. Earth berms (landscaped mounds of soil planted with native trees), masonry walls, and setback requirements can meaningfully reduce a facility’s visual and noise footprint for neighboring properties.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
Design that considers the neighbors, not just the building.
Beale manages the full design and construction process for each facility, working with experienced engineers, architects, and local partners. We pay close attention to the details that matter most to nearby residents and businesses: noise, lighting, traffic, landscaping, building placement, and construction activity.
We address these questions early – in design, not as afterthoughts during construction — because thoughtful design reduces disruption and makes facilities genuinely easier to live near once they’re operating.
On noise: we support enforceable decibel limits written into zoning conditions. We commit to locating loud equipment away from residential areas, installing acoustic barriers, and restricting generator testing to reasonable daytime hours.
On lighting: our facilities use full-cutoff fixtures that direct light downward, not sideways into neighboring yards.
On landscaping: buffer requirements, tree species, planting heights, and irrigation responsibilities are written into project agreements.
4. Grid Upgrades
During this phase the utility starts building or upgrading the substation and transmission infrastructure needed to deliver power to the site. This work happens on public rights-of-way and utility corridors and can involve new transmission lines, upgraded substations, or both.
This is also when formal interconnection agreements are signed – contracts between the developer and the utility that specify how much power will be delivered, when, and at what reliability standard.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
Beale funds the infrastructure. Not ratepayers.
In every market where we are building, Beale, not the community, pays for the infrastructure the project requires. Power delivery systems, water and wastewater upgrades, and site infrastructure are privately funded by Beale.
In De Soto, Kansas, all major project infrastructure – power, water, civil site work – is funded by Beale, with no cost to local residents or the city. That project represents an estimated $3 billion in development value at full buildout.
In Claremore, Oklahoma, Beale funded all required water and wastewater system upgrades. The result is improved regional utility capacity for the entire community – at no cost to the city.
5. Construction
Construction of a large data center is a multi-year effort involving heavy equipment, steel erection, concrete work, and dense mechanical and electrical installation. Local ordinances typically restrict construction hours – no heavy work before 7am or after 6pm on weekdays – and developers are required to control dust, particularly in desert regions.
The construction workforce is substantial: a large facility typically employs 500 to 2,000 or more tradespeople at peak – electricians, ironworkers, plumbers, pipe fitters, HVAC technicians. Most of these workers are local, who in turn contribute to the local economy.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
Construction jobs that go to local workers.
Beale’s construction employment commitments aren’t projections -they are contractual obligations that prioritize local union and trade labor. In Pima County, our project agreement commits to prioritizing local labor for construction, with an expected total of roughly 3,000 construction jobs over the build phase.
In Marana, Arizona, our development is projected to generate approximately 4,000 construction jobs over five to ten years, with 400 permanent positions at full operation.
On construction impacts: Our project agreements include provisions for dust suppression, construction hour limits, designated truck routes, and where applicable, commitments to fund road repairs on routes significantly impacted by construction traffic.
Every Beale project has a designated community liaison from the day ground breaks. If you live near a Beale construction site and something isn’t right, there is a person whose job it is to respond.
6. Testing & Commissioning
Before a data center opens, every system is tested – individually and then all at once. Generators are run at full load for hours. Cooling systems cycle at maximum capacity. Power is intentionally cut to verify that backup systems activate instantly. This phase can last weeks.
For neighbors, commissioning is a preview of what ongoing operations will sound and feel like. Tests are often the loudest events in the life of the project, because everything runs simultaneously at maximum output.
Measurements taken at this stage, compared against the noise limits written into the zoning approval, provide a concrete, documented record of actual conditions. Issues identified before a Certificate of Occupancy is issued – before the city formally clears the building to operate – can be addressed before opening day.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
Transparent testing. Verifiable results.
Beale supports independent noise and environmental measurement during the commissioning phase. If a community has agreed on specific decibel limits at the property line, those limits should be verified by measurement before we receive a Certificate of Occupancy.
We make commissioning schedules available to community liaison contacts. Our goal is not to pass a threshold on paper. Our goal is that conditions at the property line match what was promised.
7. Operations – The Long Relationship
Once a data center opens, it should operate continuously for decades. Permanent operations at a large data center employ a relatively small full-time staff — typically 20 to 100 facility technicians, security personnel, and engineers. These are skilled, above-median-wage positions that last for the operational life of the campus.
However, what that number misses is the supply chain that runs underneath it. Data centers are continuous consumers of goods and services: electrical components, cooling equipment, fuel, fiber maintenance, physical security, cleaning, landscaping, and a steady cycle of hardware refresh and replacement. Across those categories, a major campus can generate tens of thousands of ongoing jobs in the regional supply chain – jobs at local businesses, regional distributors, and specialized contractors who never appear on the facility’s org chart but whose livelihoods are directly tied to it.
HOW BEALE DOES IT DIFFERENTLY
We will own and operate these facilities for decades.
The community relationship is not a permitting hurdle. It’s a long-term relationship we have a direct interest in maintaining.
Our commitments don’t expire at ribbon-cutting. Zoning conditions, noise limits, water reporting requirements, landscaping obligations, and community benefit agreement milestones are legally enforceable for the operational life of the facility. Annual compliance reports are public records. Employment target shortfalls can carry financial penalties. Noise limit violations trigger an enforcement process – and we support it.
We commit to regular community liaison meetings, open to all neighbors, where we report on noise measurements, water use, job numbers, and any operational incidents.
You Have a Right to Know
Every community that hosts a Beale data center has a right to know what is being built, how it will be managed, what its impacts will be, and what lasting value it will bring. The commitments we make are public, contractual, and measurable.
If you have questions about a Beale project in your community, or one being proposed, visit our website, attend a community liaison meeting, or reach out directly.