An Iowa-based entrepreneur is considering building a computer data center in west Eugene and using cooling water from the facility as warm water for a shrimp farm that would be built next door.
The details are fuzzy, and it’s uncertain whether the project will ever move forward.
On the surface, the idea seems outlandish. But experts for years have sought uses for the large amounts of warm water that data centers generate as they cool their racks of computer servers. Aquaculture is an option.
The businessman, Kevin Friesth, has submitted some preliminary paperwork and questions to city planning staff and is looking into buying up to 38 acres of industrial-zoned land in west Eugene for the facility. The land, owned by Portland-area investors, is on the market for $14.8 million.
Friesth did not respond to an email and a text message. Allen Ruggles, a Eugene commercial real estate broker representing Friesth, says Friesth has a contract to buy the property and is now working on “due diligence” to see if the project is feasible.
“We’re actively involved in deciding yes or no,” Ruggles says. It may take until year’s end to know, he says.
Only a handful of small data centers are located in Eugene. It’s unclear from the paperwork how large the west Eugene facility might be.
Oregon has its share of monster data centers where stacks of servers holding massive amounts of data use large amounts of electricity and cooling water. Big ones include a Google data center in The Dalles and a Meta data center in Prineville. Data center developers tend to put the facilities where there’s ample vacant land, lots of electricity, and strong internet connectivity to customer bases in big cities.
The site Friesth is eyeing is one of the largest vacant pieces of heavy/medium-industrial zoned land in west Eugene. It’s next to a Eugene Water & Electric Board substation, a facility that turns high-voltage power from transmission lines into lower-voltage power for customer use.
Being so close to the substation would be a plus for the data center, Ruggles says.
Many developers submit concepts to city planners, only for the ideas to fizzle.
But if seriousness is judged by the number of new companies he has registered in Oregon, Friesth is serious. This summer, using his new Eugene address, he registered 14 new company names in the state, including Friesth Farms LLC, along with names such as Elysium Fortress Inc. and Odyssey Aerospace Inc.
Internationally, one company, in the Norwegian town of Rjukan, has built a trout-breeding facility that uses warm water from a nearby data center. The trout farm became operational last year and is now conducting its first harvest, according to industry news reports.
There are also a number of indoor land-based aquaculture facilities in the United States and around the world that heat their own water in order to breed fish and shellfish.
From detox to granary
Meanwhile, in Whiteaker-area news, the decommissioned old Buckley House addiction detox center has become the property of its towering neighbor, Grain Millers Inc.
Minnesota-based Grain Millers bought the 5,500-square-foot building for an undisclosed sum from the nonprofit Willamette Family Inc., a treatment agency, in late August, according to the deed. Willamette Family had shut the grim 60-year-old property on Jefferson Street and this year opened a newly remodeled detox facility, also named Buckley House, several blocks away.
“We decided to sell the [old] building as part of our ongoing strategic planning to best serve the community. While we’re not disclosing financial details, the proceeds are being used to support our programs and ensure long-term sustainability,” says Jonathan Smith, Willamette Family’s CFO.
It’s unclear what Grain Millers will do with the building, which sits next to the company’s grain silos. The company mills and sells oats, wheat and other grains nationwide and internationally. Grain Millers, founded in Eugene in 1986, did not return phone calls from Eugene Weekly.
Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.