JK, JK, West Jordan Would Like That Facebook Data Center After All

This is too good of an opportunity for Utah to pass up, so we have been working throughout the night and will continue through the day to keep the project alive.

Okay. Disregard everything I’ve written about the Facebook Data Center saga so far. I wrote AT LENGTH about the details of Project Discus. Then I wrote AT LENGTH about West Jordan’s decision to end negotiations with Project Discus. But neither of those stories matter anymore because today West Jordan officials said JK! and then announced that negotiations are starting afresh. It’s fine. Those stories only took 20 hours to research and write.

The statement released by the City of West Jordan today reads:

Yesterday’s State School Board vote challenged negotiations that were already worked out with a company known as Project Discus. The company was not in a position to accept the terms of the School Board’s motion last night. As a result, the City of West Jordan terminated the agreement so that we could start fresh. This is too good of an opportunity for Utah to pass up, so we have been working throughout the night and will continue through the day to keep the project alive.

Based on feedback from other cities where Discus has data centers, we know that this company is a generous community partner and an asset wherever they locate. We have been in talks with Discus since the vote, and they are still very interested in coming to West Jordan. We appreciate the support of the Governor, State School Board, the Jordan School District, and the Jordan Valley Water District who we have worked with throughout our negotiations. The company is anxious to make a decision, and we are ready to welcome them to our city.

This story is one twist away from becoming one of those straws we all had in childhood with which we blew bubbles in our chocolate milk and the dishwasher never really cleaned them properly and they got pretty gross pretty quick but they were really great twisty fun while they lasted.