As developers continue plans to line up a possible primary end user for a data center in west Emporia, the City Commission is working on its own preparation as the overall process moves ahead.
The city has issued a Request for Qualifications from law firms as the city considers the need for specialized legal services.
The city says it wants a “highly qualified national or regional law firm or qualified team of firms” with experience in essentially all aspects of data center business, including “complex economic development transactions…large-scale utility-intensive developments, major infrastructure-related development agreements,” as well as incentives, environmental risk and municipal law. The legal team will be responsible for helping with transactional services, project support and ongoing legal representation.
The legal partner or partners will work with City Manager Trey Cocking, City Attorney Christina Montgomery, city commissioners, city staff and other consultants. Cocking explained on the most recent installment of KVOE’s Q&A With Trey segment Tuesday that the city wants to make sure they have the most experience possible handling the matter, noting the legal side is outside the normal realm of expertise for city staff.
As this aspect of the data center conversation moves ahead, the city stresses the RFQ process does not automatically lead to approval of a data center project. Cocking noted the process of attaining services is one that can be lengthy and so the commission is wanting to get a jump start on it before an end user is identified. There will be an optional pre-submittal meeting at 3 pm Aug 25. Proposals are due by 3 pm Sept 1. Cocking says the city would likely have a short list of options ready for consideration by the city commission’s second meeting in September; however, again, they will not make any final decisions until an end user has been identified and a “conflict check” can be conducted to make sure the chosen firm or firms are not representing both parties.
Cocking says the use of said services, once secured, will not have any property tax dollars put towards it, with the city instead planning to pay for the legal services through economic development sales tax dollars.
Flint Hills Digital Campus spokesman Garrett Nordstrom says there has been “significant” progress towards securing a potential primary end user, although he can’t mention the number of potential end users in the mix or the names of those businesses. Should an agreement be reached between the development team and an end user, the process moves towards hammering out a development agreement, with reviews by the City Commission as part of that work.
