Digital Realty pledges $20 million in credits for De Soto households

Digital Realty has committed $20 million toward utility and property-tax credits for households in De Soto, Kansas, alongside its planned Astra North data-center development. The company said the still-unfinished program could provide up to $1,000 per household each year for 10 years.

Digital Realty said it is working with the City of De Soto to finalize the credits based on current population estimates. Still unresolved are who will qualify, how residents will apply, when distributions will begin, who will administer them and how the money will be divided between utility and property-tax credits. The company said more information would follow after details are confirmed, but it did not give a firm start date.

The credit commitment is tied to Astra North, the first phase of a proposed data-center campus at Astra Enterprise Park. De Soto describes the project as a proposal moving through development review, while Digital Realty says the project remains in planning and is subject to permits and public review. The campus is not operational.

Together, city and company project pages describe Astra North as a roughly 280-acre development with as many as nine data-center buildings totaling about 3 million square feet. Digital Realty projects more than 1,000 workers at peak construction and about 250 full-time positions after the project begins operating. Those figures are company estimates, not observed employment.

Digital Realty announced in June that it had acquired about 1,440 acres at Astra Enterprise Park for approximately $475 million to support hyperscale data-center development. The company has not said in the reviewed public materials whether the household-credit commitment is legally binding, funded in escrow or contingent on project, permitting or tax-incentive approvals.