Vantage's North America President Dana Adams gave a rare inside look at one of the company's data centers as debate grows over its planned hyperscale AI facility in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
The tour took place at Vantage's data center in Sterling, Virginia, located in Loudoun County — the data center capital of the world and home to hundreds of data centers. The Virginia facility is smaller in scale than the planned Port Washington AI facility but shares key similarities.
Getting inside required passing through double-door, badge-controlled entries, with signs marking rooms that are off-limits — a reflection of the significant dollar investment and proprietary client work housed inside.
"We want to demystify for people what a data center is," Adams said.
Inside, rows of computer servers and IT equipment filled the space, with endless fiber cables and an elaborate cooling system designed to prevent overheating. The large room was loud and warm, though the smaller containment areas were noticeably cooler.
"If we open this door here, so you can feel the colder air coming out of here, so this is what we call containment, so we try to isolate either the cold air or the hot air so that they're not mixing together and that contributes to the efficiency of the room — and it reduces the amount of cooling that we need," Adams said.
Long hallways connected to the facility's spaces. Vantage says 130 employees, plus another 300 workers ranging from customers to vendors on campus, occupy office space within the building. Many Vantage workers were seen at the facility's weekly catered lunch for employees.
Vantage expects 1,000 employees on site at its Port Washington facility, called Lighthouse, when combined with its customers Oracle and OpenAI.
"Our customers, they will have their own employees and staff on site really looking after the IT and networking equipment, so that's kind of the delineation between Vantage and our customers. But both of us will have engineers, we'll have mechanical and electrical operators, we'll have technicians, we'll have IT network specialists, security specialists — so on and so forth manning that facility," Adams said.
Ryan Kehoe, Vantage's vice president of site operations, guided the tour through a large electrical room tied to the power grid, past backup batteries and diesel-powered generators for use during power outages, and up to rooftop chillers for the facility's closed-loop water cooling system — a design Vantage says will reduce its need for water.
"What I want to drive home is one of our most optimal designs in the fleet. We have a closed-loop chill water system. So, this is a one-time fill," Kehoe said.
The system uses 11.8 million gallons of water — roughly the equivalent of 18 Olympic-sized swimming pools — but only once. That water is then recycled to cool the equipment.
"This is all closed loop, yep, and then you can see it coming up to the chillers and then back down into the data halls. This is all just being recycled, all this water," Adams said.
Environmental groups caution that more water will be needed indirectly to meet the high energy demands required to power data centers. Adams acknowledged growing concerns and opposition to data centers in Wisconsin and said the company wants to have conversations about their benefits.
"So many things that we do every day are actually happening inside a data center, so we do need this infrastructure. It's not a debate over whether or not we need it. We do and we'll continue to need more, but it's really about how do we build it responsibly," Adams said.
Construction crews have been the biggest winners so far, with Vantage saying they are still trending toward their original prediction of 4,000 jobs.
One-on-one interview with Dana Adams: Port Washington progress
Dana Adams, president of Vantage North America, said the project remains on track financially and is making significant progress on the ground.
"We're still forecasting $15 billion of investment in this project and actually just recently in the last week we celebrated topping out of the second building on the campus so we're making incredible progress, really happy of what the team's doing there," Adams said.
Local jobs, local benefits
"We've already had some job fairs, and we'll continue to hold those as we really ramp up the operations and as in our other markets," Adams said.
Adams said Vantage views itself as a long-term presence in the community, not just a builder handing off a finished product.
"Vantage, we are a long-term owner-operator of the infrastructure," Adams said.
On the question of whether Port Washington and Ozaukee County residents will see tangible benefits beyond employment, Adams pointed to the broader ripple effect the project could have on families and local institutions.
"They do in that their parents and their friends and their neighbors could have meaningful employment through this project and through the ongoing operations of this project. They do through the financial rewards that will be reaped within the community," Adams said.
"We'd love to build more."
When asked whether Port Washington would be Vantage's only Wisconsin project, Adams said the company is interested in expanding its footprint in the state.
"We'd love to build more in Wisconsin. Wisconsin brings a lot of great benefits, and Wisconsin should want to be a part of the fourth industrial revolution and part of the growth of modern technology, and it has all of the right factors to do that and to be a part of that and so this project again has been a great project for us," Adams said.
Follow TMJ4 this week for more coverage on key issues such as:
- Tuesday: What are the environmental and water concerns with the Port Washington facility and how Vantage is responding to those concerns.
- Wednesday: How local employment opportunities compare to other employers and what residents and educators are saying about potential jobs.
- Thursday: Vantage is paying for its massive energy needs. Who will hold the company accountable for those costs?
This story was reported on-air by Charles Benson and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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