The Ahwatukee Data Center: What Actually Happened

Michael Del Prete | Candidate, Phoenix City Council District 6 | 20 years in Arizona real estate & Business

If you live in Ahwatukee, you've heard about the data center planned for Thistle Landing.

You've probably also wondered how something this big got this far before most of the neighborhood knew a thing.

I went into the city records, because you deserve facts, not rumors. Here's what actually happened.

What's being built

A California company, Menlo Equities, is redeveloping the old Thistle Landing office park near 48th Street and Thistle Landing Drive into a data center campus. Five buildings, an on-site electrical substation, and a community park of about two acres.

It's a major project. That's exactly why the process matters.

The real decision was made in the 1990s

The zoning that allows this dates back to the 1990s, years before Menlo owned the land. Under that old approval, a data center is already a permitted use here. So Menlo never needed a new rezoning to build one.

City Hall did touch the project once. In 2024, a technical change to some old site stipulations went to a Planning Hearing Officer, and the City Council ratified that action in March.

But look closely at what that vote was, and what it wasn't. The Council ratified a minor stipulation on a site that was already entitled. It was never asked the question that actually mattered: should a data center of this scale sit here at all?

That question was answered nearly thirty years ago. Everyone living near it now simply inherited the answer. The stipulation fight turned out to be so minor that the city later called the change unnecessary and Menlo dropped it.

Why Ahwatukee Residents Weren't Told About the Data Center

There were public meetings. There were city documents.

But technically following a process is not the same as actually informing a neighborhood.

Too many residents learned the scale of this thing long after the decisions that shaped it were already made. Not from their council office. Not from Planning and Zoning. From a neighbor, or a news story, after the fact.

That's the failure. When a project this size is coming, people should not have to track zoning agendas and decode planning documents to find out. The city should say it plainly and early. Explain the project. Explain what City Hall controls. And just as honestly, explain what it does not.

Transparency matters most when the answer is complicated.

How Phoenix's New Data Center Rules Backfired

Eventually the city admitted its zoning code hadn't kept up with what data centers had become. In July 2025, the City Council passed new rules restricting where they can go.

On paper, that's the protection residents wanted. Then came Proposition 207.

Arizona law lets property owners seek compensation when a new land-use rule lowers their property's value. The moment the ordinance passed, the claims came in. At least eleven landowners filed against the city.

Together, those claims total roughly $753 million. If the city has to pay, it comes out of the general fund. The same fund behind your police, your fire trucks, your parks, and your streets.

So to limit the damage, the city started granting waivers, letting projects skip the very rules it had just adopted.

Sit with that. The Council passed protections. The protections triggered three-quarters of a billion dollars in claims. And now the city is waiving those protections to avoid paying. Residents got neither the protection they were promised nor the certainty anyone wanted. Just exposure, and a mess.

You deserve better policymaking than that.

Why is my electric bill so high

There's a separate cost in the power grid.

APS has a rate case before the Arizona Corporation Commission right now, asking for a substantial increase on households while proposing far larger increases for its biggest users, including data centers.

I'll be straight about the lines of authority, because they matter. Phoenix City Council does not set your APS rate. The Corporation Commission does. And APS says data centers will pay their own way. Residents deserve proof of that, not just a promise, because nobody serious believes a buildout this size costs the rest of us nothing.

Where I stand

Let me be clear. I am not anti-data-center. I am not anti-development. Phoenix should compete for investment and jobs.

This is about competence.

Before the Council passes a major regulation, it should understand the law, the financial exposure, and the consequences it's about to set off. Anyone who has run a business, bought property, or made a serious financial decision knows the rule: you work out the downside before you act, not after the lawyers show up.

That's the mindset I'd bring to City Hall. I would:

Understand the legal exposure before I vote, not after the claims land.

Tell residents the truth about what the Council can and can't control, every time, even when it's inconvenient.

Get ahead of big projects and explain them to the neighborhood early, instead of leaving people to find out from a rumor.

And use whatever leverage the city still holds to fight for real neighborhood protections and community benefits.

Sometimes government cannot stop something. But it can still lead.

Ahwatukee may not have been able to change the final outcome at Thistle Landing. But residents deserved to know sooner, to understand why, and to know exactly who was responsible.

You deserve a council member who reads the fine print before it costs you.

Have a question about Thistle Landing, or anything else in District 6 send me a message.