Granite City Mayor Mike Parkinson has taken multiple trips to Papillion Nebraska, seeking to learn about their data center and its impact on their local economy.
Parkinson says he's familiar with Papillion, with a friend from there introducing him to his wife, and says he has seen how the city has grown after constructing a data center.
"It was a city similar to Granite... it was an older part of Nebraska, older part of Omaha area. Now it's booming, it's thriving."
Parkinson said his tour of the data center in Papilion Nebraska debunked some myths for him.
"Everything we heard about noise was just completely erroneous. There was no noise whatsoever, everything was completely indoors.
Parkinson was also impressed by the modern look of the facility and praised the campus for its cleanliness.
A common complaint about data centers is their immense power and water usage raising consumer rates. Parkinson says he wants to do further research on the impact Papillion's data center has had on pocketbooks.
"Seeing if they've seen these dramatic rate increases that people talk about so much."
Parkinson tells KMOX intermediaries on behalf of data centers have spoken with Granite City about the possibility of building one there.
"A middle man type person, [discussing] what the feasibility is... As far as any kind of agreements or things like that, no."
He emphasized there is no deal in place but shares a preliminary projection of the kind of impact a data center could have on Granite City's economy.
"In a given year, the City of Granite City on a 300 acre site, you could be looking at $30,000,000 in tax revenue."
The data center could come at an opportune time for Granite City, who's economy has long been tied to the uncertain future of the US Steel Granite City Works plant.
Data centers have become a political hot button issue, with data center proposals in St. Charles and St. Louis City being met with moratoriums, regulations and public backlash.
Parkinson says they anticipate sharing more information about public engagement opportunities regarding a potential data center in the early part of 2026.