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Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center

West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa · All 45 Microsoft sites · Every Microsoft case on our tracker

Under constructionMixed receptionAI likelyRecord updated August 21, 2026

Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center is a data center under construction in West Des Moines, Iowa (Polk County), operated by Microsoft. The public record puts it at announced 2021, 188 acres, a reported $1.6 billion investment. It has documented support and documented opposition on record.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Under construction

Operator
Microsoft
Facility type
Data center, AI use likely
Location
11100 Booneville Road, West Des Moines, Polk County, IA
Coordinates
41.5510, -93.7820
Power capacity
Not established from a public source
Land
188 acres
Investment
$1.6 billion
Announced
2021
Utility
MidAmerican Energy
Power source
Grid
Cooling
Hybrid
Water use
Not established from a public source
Jobs
Not established from a public source
Public subsidy
Not established from a public source
Community reception
Mixed reception
Source confidence
Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

  1. 2021
    Proposed
    West Des Moines approved first two buildings of Ginger West; construction start targeted September 2021 Source: Data Center Dynamics
  2. 2021
    Under construction
    Construction underway; first building came online 2023 (244,676 sq ft); additional phases ongoing targeting summer 2028 completion Source: Microsoft

Opposition and litigation at this site

Partly. Both documented support and documented opposition to Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa appear in the record, with no clear majority position. WDM Mayor Russ Trimble has praised Microsoft as a 'game changer' and 'great corporate citizens' (never exceeding agreed water allotments); neighboring residents cite light pollution, traffic, noise, and water-use concerns.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: mixed reception means documented support and documented opposition both exist with no clear majority position on record.

WDM Mayor Russ Trimble has praised Microsoft as a 'game changer' and 'great corporate citizens' (never exceeding agreed water allotments); neighboring residents cite light pollution, traffic, noise, and water-use concerns. No formal opposition group or litigation identified.

Source: Wisconsin Public Radio

Power and water

Iowa wind and renewables; Microsoft contracts 100% carbon-free electricity for Iowa operations

Microsoft's West Des Moines datacenters use direct evaporative cooling (water ~10% of the year, air-cooled the rest); a planned Ginger West building is committed to next-generation 'zero-water' cooling under WDM's 2023 policy favoring reduced peak water use. Microsoft's WDM fleet (five campuses) used ~70M gallons in 2024 (fleet-wide, not Ginger West-specific); Microsoft funded ~$25M in WDM Water Works improvements incl. a 2M-gallon tank.

Notes on the record

Site at 11100 Booneville Rd area, West Des Moines (Polk County). 1.8M sq ft planned across multiple buildings. Turner Construction is general contractor; completion estimated summer 2028. Companion Ginger East campus (124 acres, 5 buildings) is a separate site in West Des Moines. Part of Microsoft's multi-billion dollar total Iowa investment since 2009. Planned MW capacity not confirmed from primary sources; 444 MW figure removed as unsupported. Iowa's Sec. 423.3(95) data-center sales-tax exemption applies, but Iowa data-center incentive awards are not publicly disclosed; no Ginger West-specific job count is published.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

  • Power capacity in megawatts
  • Tax abatements or other public subsidy
  • Permanent jobs promised
Which document closes each gap
Power capacity in megawatts
The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
Tax abatements or other public subsidy
The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
Permanent jobs promised
The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center in West Des Moines?

Partly. Both documented support and documented opposition to Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa appear in the record, with no clear majority position. WDM Mayor Russ Trimble has praised Microsoft as a 'game changer' and 'great corporate citizens' (never exceeding agreed water allotments); neighboring residents cite light pollution, traffic, noise, and water-use concerns.

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center?

No lawsuit over Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center appears in the record we track as of August 21, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.

How much water does Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center use?

No water withdrawal figure for Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center is on record here. Cooling is recorded as hybrid, which is the strongest available clue: closed loop and air cooled plant draw far less than evaporative cooling. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center, and how big is it?

Microsoft is the operator on record. We hold 45 sites for that company across the registry. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 188 acres.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Microsoft Project Ginger West Data Center," updated August 21, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/microsoft-ginger-west-ia.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/microsoft-ginger-west-ia, retrieved September 14, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

  1. 1.Ginger West datacenter construction update, Microsoft Local · Microsoft · retrieved July 6, 2026
  2. 2.Microsoft Project Ginger West data center in West Des Moines gets planning approval · Data Center Dynamics · retrieved July 6, 2026
  3. 3.Microsoft's next data center buildings to use 'zero-water' technology · Axios Des Moines · retrieved July 7, 2026
  4. 4.Microsoft built 5 data center campuses in this Iowa city. Here's what Wisconsin can expect. · Wisconsin Public Radio · retrieved July 7, 2026
  5. 5.HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (ORNL/DOE-CESER, 2023-08 vintage) · Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) / HIFLD · retrieved July 23, 2026
  6. 6.Construction Underway on 4 New Microsoft Data Centers · Go West Des Moines (City of West Des Moines economic development) · retrieved August 21, 2026

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