Project Pilot (Beale Infrastructure, DeSoto, KS) data center, DeSoto, Kansas

Project Pilot is Beale Infrastructure's data center campus at the northwest corner of 103rd Street and Edgerton Road in De Soto, Johnson County, Kansas, just south of Kansas Highway 10 and west of the Panasonic plant. Construction began in April 2026, and by then the plan had grown: what the city council was shown in August 2025 as four buildings totaling 1.14 million square feet is now four buildings totaling nearly 2.9 million square feet.

Pilot KC Holdings LLC, another company tied to Beale, bought the land in September 2025, according to property filings reported by the Kansas City Business Journal. Beale, backed by the asset manager Blue Owl, announced the first phase at the end of April 2026, with Evergy supplying the power and a large technology company signed as tenant on a long-term lease. City planners approved the site plan that week, on condition Beale bring a new landscaping plan to the planning commission before it gets an occupancy permit.

The first phase is a 300,000 square foot building and an 863,000 square foot building, due for completion in 2028; the second phase adds two more buildings of 864,000 square feet each, with no timeline given. The growth in size is what residents object to. "They (Beale) are proposing a facility larger than what was originally presented," Toni Caldwell told the city council on May 7, 2026, calling it "a breach of understanding that they created with this community."

A Beale spokesperson said the August 2025 designs were "preliminary and subject to change, and not part of the formal application," which the planning commission approved in April and May. City administrator Mike Brungardt told KSHB 41 the binding agreement approved in August 2025 "does not limit building size," and that because the project fit existing zoning, the change did not have to go back to the full council.

Rob Daniels, the former council member who made the motion to approve it, said the franchise fee cap the council negotiated "didn't necessarily account for them using potentially two and a half times the power." Michelle Kauk, Beale's director of public policy, said the air-cooled, closed-loop cooling design chosen for the site is what increased the square footage.

Beale held an open house at De Soto High School on June 18, 2026, and more than 150 people came. Tony Burkart, Beale's senior vice president for public policy, said water came up often, and that daily use at the site would be akin to a restaurant's. The city's project page puts the first phase at about 15,000 to 20,000 gallons a day, roughly two or three sit-down restaurants, and says the cooling system is filled once rather than drawing water continuously.

Sara VanDeCreek told the council that evening the open house had been "geared a lot toward our families and our children," with balloon artists and face painters, and that she got no new information from it. "I mean, we've been lied to so much. I don't know what's real and what isn't any more," Caldwell told KMBC at the event.

Payments in lieu of taxes are tied to floor area, so the larger plan pays more: a Beale spokesperson put the figure at $163 million for the city and $78 million for USD 232, plus a further $250 million in sales tax on power and franchise fees. A statement quoted by KSHB 41 also lists $10 million to replace the city's 80-year-old cast iron pipeline across the Kansas River, which carries most of De Soto's raw water.

Beale puts construction employment at 400 to 800 and says each phase will support about 50 jobs once running, plus more than 100 contract positions. VanDeCreek and Caldwell are now asking the council for noise, lighting and environmental ordinances and a moratorium. A second, larger proposal is coming: on June 4, 2026 Digital Realty presented plans for a 1,400-acre campus just down the road from Beale's site.