Eagle Mountain has emerged as a hub for tech centers since Meta built its data center there and expanded the site in 2022. In addition to Meta, Google has acquired land there and QTS announced it will enter the Salt Lake market in Eagle Mountain.

The future of Eagle Mountain has many more data centers in store. Tract, a developer of master-planned data center parks, is paving the way by preparing the land for these developments. On Jan. 18, Tract announced the acquisition of 668 acres of land in two areas of the city, one southeast of Meta and the other east of the Tyson facility.

Tract will develop all the necessary infrastructure to construct data centers, but it does not complete the actual construction of the buildings, said Evan Berrett, economic development director for Eagle Mountain. “They’ll prepare those sites for eventual resale or lease to other data center developers to come in and actually build the structures themselves,” he said. While development agreements are still being worked out, the expectation is that it will only be data centers developed on the land.

“Beyond the fiscal impact, our new technology neighbors have been great additions to our community, and we look forward to working with partners like Tract to develop new campuses and expand our emergence as a tech hub while maintaining our small-town charm,” Eagle Mountain Mayor Tom Westmoreland stated in a press release.

Some of the preparations Tract will complete include water conservation systems, electrical infrastructure, access to the existing fiber internet infrastructure, access to roads and other necessities for the data centers to be built there. “One of the most important things about this is that these sites are not being prepared for any sort of water cooling,” Berrett said, “this will be predominantly supported by the necessary infrastructure for air cooling or electric cooling.”

“We appreciate Tract’s leadership in minimizing water impact, as well as their innovative approaches to powering their campuses,” Scott Cuthbertson, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corp. of Utah, stated in the press release. “Resource-conscious data center expansion can help ensure economic prosperity for the State of Utah, today and in the future.”

The press release states the land that Tract acquired “sits within the Regional Technology Innovation (RTI) Overlay, which allows for by-right use for data centers, advanced manufacturing, research and development sites, supported by expedited administrative review processes for site plans and permits. To enable speed and certainty for initial development on the site, Tract is working with Rocky Mountain Power to deliver more than 400 megawatts via new transmission infrastructure by 2028.”

Tyler Maffitt, Eagle Mountain communications manager, said officials have worked hard over the past years to make the city attractive to these data centers. “Tract aligns with something Eagle Mountain has really focused on, which is data centers. This is going to not just solicit but almost promise multibillions of dollars in investment in Eagle Mountain and in Utah County,” he said.

Added Berrett, these data centers have brought and will bring in money to Eagle Mountain’s economy, grow its population and provide skilled jobs for residents.

Tract purchased the land from private developers, Berrett said, and “the city’s involvement has been in the preparation beforehand to make Eagle Mountain an attractive place for data centers. A frequent praise of Eagle Mountain coming from Tract was the creation of our regional technology and industry overlay zone.” Berrett explained this overlay zone makes the approval process with the city simpler for data centers as long as they meet certain conditions such as obtaining a certain investment level or providing a certain number of jobs.

“We identified data centers early on as a way to employ residents, pay for the infrastructure of our growing city, and form partnerships to strengthen this close-knit community,” Westmoreland stated in the press release.

According to Berrett, it’s not yet known how many jobs will be provided through the data centers that develop on the land Tract is preparing. But compared to the jobs other data centers have provided, he said, they expect it will be hundreds. The data centers themselves reportedly will provide long-term high-paying jobs, but throughout the process of constructing them, temporary construction jobs also will be available. Not only will they need to construct the building in terms of framing and cement, but the high-tech buildings also require highly experienced people from a variety of fields including engineers, architects, geographic information analysts and more.

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