Western Hospitality Partners, or WHP, is a New York City-based data center developer. Little is published about the company itself, DCD has noted, but its name has been attached to proposals in Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Alabama. None of its Kentucky or Illinois projects has been built: two were withdrawn in Kentucky, one in Illinois was dropped, and one in Illinois is on hold.
Its largest plan, Project Lincoln, was announced in late March 2025 for 267 acres of farmland on Highway 53 in Oldham County, Kentucky: eight buildings, 2 million square feet and 600 megawatts, at a cost of $6 billion. Residents objected that WHP had applied as a "private utility" to put heavy industry on agricultural land without a rezoning vote by the elected fiscal court. On June 2, 2025 the company moved the plan to a 30-acre drive-in theater site nearby, with two buildings instead of eight. On July 1 the fiscal court passed a 150-day moratorium on all data centers with no exemption for projects already filed, and two days later WHP withdrew, saying the project "will be withdrawn and will not proceed."
In Illinois, WHP held an option to buy about 320 acres of Pekin's Lutticken Farm for $4.5 million. Opponents formed a Facebook group of more than 2,200 members and delivered about 2,000 petition signatures, and in March 2026 Mayor Mary Burress said the city would not move forward; in May WHP's lawyers terminated the agreement. Its remaining Illinois site is in Braidwood, near the 2.2-gigawatt Braidwood nuclear plant, where it is working with Found Digital on a campus of up to eight buildings; the developer has closed on the land, but in January 2026 the city said the project was on hold because of ComEd's infrastructure requirements.
In Kentucky, Oldham County's fiscal court is due to vote on permanent data center rules on October 6, 2026, including a 10-megawatt power cap that would effectively bar hyperscale data centers.
Western Hospitality Partners sites on record
Grouped by country, then by state or region, biggest first. Open one to see the projects there. The report above may name sites that have no record here yet.
United States4 · 600 MW
Kentucky2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Lincoln: OC Data CenterLa Grange | Western Hospitality Partners | Withdrawn | 600 MW | |
| Project Lincoln: OC Data Center (second version)La Grange | Western Hospitality Partners | Withdrawn | Not reported |
Illinois2
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Hospitality Partners Data CenterBraidwood | Western Hospitality Partners | Suspended | Not reported | |
| Western Hospitality Partners Data CenterPekin | Western Hospitality Partners | Cancelled | Not reported |
Where this comes from
The reporting above was written from these. Open one and check it yourself.
Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.