QTS Van Wert Data Center Campus, Van Wert, Ohio

Van Wert finally has its tenant, and the excavators are moving. QTS Data Centers has broken ground on Phase 1 of a planned $10 billion data center campus on the Van Wert Mega Site in northwest Ohio, with site excavation underway as of late October 2026.

The site had been marketed for nearly two decades without landing an end user. QTS, the Blackstone-owned developer, announced the deal with the city in late May 2026.

Project Scope

The full campus covers roughly 902 acres east of the city, north of U.S. Route 30, and is planned for up to seven data center buildings. Phase 1 alone is four buildings of about 650,000 square feet each, or roughly 2.6 million square feet. Earthwork is first. Vertical building construction is expected to start in spring 2027.

QTS expects a five-to-six-year build. The first building is targeted to go live in the first quarter of 2029, with full buildout projected around 2032. Construction employment is estimated at more than 1,500 workers, with about 200 permanent QTS jobs once it’s operating.

Power is the piece QTS hasn’t put a number on. The company is working with American Electric Power on supply and says it’ll pay for 100% of the energy infrastructure the campus needs so costs don’t land on existing AEP Ohio customers. It hasn’t disclosed the campus’s megawatt capacity, citing security and confidentiality.

Cooling is closed-loop. The system needs an initial fill of about 660,000 gallons of water, purchased from the city, and then recirculates instead of consuming water continuously. QTS has also pledged a community betterment fund for Van Wert and projects about $200 million in local tax revenue over 20 years.

No general contractor or design firm has been named publicly.

Why It Matters

This is what the next wave of hyperscale data center construction looks like: rural megasites with flat land, transmission access and towns eager for a tax base, rather than the crowded Northern Virginia corridor. Four buildings at 650,000 square feet apiece is a lot of steel, concrete and electrical gear landing in a small rural county, and the 1,500-worker peak will test local housing and trade capacity.

The undisclosed power figure is the number to watch. AEP Ohio already requires large data center customers to make longer-term load commitments, and a campus this size will need substantial new transmission and substation work. QTS saying it’ll cover that cost is the right promise. Whether the grid can deliver on a 2029 schedule is the real constraint.

Project Team & Details