Data Center Construction in Wyoming
Wyoming's data center market is measured in acres and megawatts, not square feet. Meta announced an $800 million, 715,000 square foot data center in south Cheyenne in July 2024, on 960 acres in the High Plains Business Park along South Greeley Highway (US 85). Its announcement counted more than 1,000 skilled trade jobs at peak construction. That is the scale of labor a project of this kind pulls from a state with a small workforce and long distances between towns.
We build for the owners and commercial real estate developers who live with that reality. Data center work here is a power and schedule problem first. The shell, the slab and the site are the parts we control, and we sequence them so the electrical gear, the cooling plant and the commissioning crews can follow without waiting on us. If your building is a 100,000 square foot phase on a larger campus, the same discipline applies.
Whatever draws an operator to the high plains, wind, frost and snow load decide how the shell is built. We cover all three below, along with how we price remote-site labor.
Cheyenne, Evanston and the infrastructure behind them
Infrastructure comes before the building. Cheyenne LEADS delivered two sanitary sewer mains, a water main, a new 4.5-mile road and a US Highway 85 traffic signal to the 1,100-acre High Plains Business Park between April 2024 and December 2025, in seven bid packages, all privately funded by Meta. That work opened an additional 2,800 acres to the south for future development. The lesson for any owner is that site utilities are their own construction program, with their own bid packages and schedule.
The market is not only Cheyenne. Uinta County commissioners approved Prometheus Hyperscale's 1.25 gigawatt data center on 506 acres of ranchland about 12 miles east of Evanston, on the south side of I-80, and reports put construction at four to five years once final permitting clears. Cheyenne LEADS' CEO has said data center companies in the Cheyenne area have invested $3.1 billion, counting from 2012. We follow Cheyenne and Evanston closely for that reason.
What a data hall shell demands
A data hall is a quiet, heavy, dust-free box with a lot of power running into it. The slab carries racks and cooling equipment, so flatness and load capacity matter. The roof carries mechanical equipment and snow, and in the Wyoming wind it has to be tied down properly. Penetrations for conduit, pipe and ducts are numerous, and every one is a leak path if it is not sealed right.
Fire protection, security and redundant utilities shape the layout. We coordinate with the owner's engineer so the shell, the electrical rooms and the generator yard are placed together, and we hold the sequence so the heavy gear can be set before the roof closes in. The tilt-wall construction and structural steel erection trade partners build the envelope.
The trades we manage most closely
Concrete, steel and site work are the trades that set the pace on a data center shell, and we manage them closely enough to control the schedule. We schedule and supervise the foundations and slab, the panels or steel, and the grading and underground that the building depends on. That lets us confirm staffing and travel commitments before a remote trade partner's availability affects the critical path.
For the specialty trades, we run the bid packages, qualify the subs and hold the coordination meetings. The goal is one point of accountability. If the hall is late, you should not have to find out which of eight contractors caused it. Our site development and utilities work covers the sewer, water and road base ahead of the building.
Power dates, long-lead gear and the weather
Switchgear, transformers, generators and chillers come on their own lead times, and those dates drive the schedule more than the concrete does. We build the shell to a date that lets the gear be set when it arrives, and we protect the interior from weather while we wait. Missing the delivery window can mean a winter on an open building.
Cold-weather concrete, wind holds on lifts and short days in December are baked into our plan. On a campus project with four to five years of construction, as the Evanston proposal describes, we plan seasons rather than weeks, and we tell the owner which quarter is best for which scope.
Codes, conditions and who signs off
Wyoming has no single statewide building code. The state adopted the 2024 International Codes on June 28, 2024, and cities and counties with delegated authority adopt their own editions and amendments. For a data center that means we confirm the edition, the amendments and the electrical code with the local building official before design is final. County land-use permits come first, and they can carry conditions: the Evanston project's permit carries about 30.
Snow, wind and frost values are local. Evanston's sheet sets a 40 psf minimum snow load and footings 54 inches deep. Laramie County lists 32 lb/ft2 ground snow, 105 mph wind and a 36 inch frost line. We design to the values for the site, not to a statewide guess.
Where data center work connects to the rest of our services
A data hall needs a design team that understands both the owner's process and the construction sequence. Our design-build delivery puts us in that conversation early, and preconstruction estimating gives you a number before the drawings lock. Long-lead gear is a topic for the first meeting, not the tenth.
Owners in the data center and technology space can also see our page on data center buildings, which describes the building type from the owner's side.
Plan your data center build
Share the site, the megawatt target and the phase you are building first. We will lay out the shell, slab and site work and show you where the schedule is tight.
Questions Owners Ask
How many skilled workers does a large data center project pull from Wyoming?
Meta's Cheyenne announcement cited more than 1,000 skilled trade jobs at peak construction for a 715,000 square foot building. That is a lot of labor for a state this size. We plan on travel crews, housing and per diem from the start, and we tell owners early when a trade will be short.
Why would an operator pick a site this far out on the plains?
Land and power are the usual reasons, and Cheyenne's business parks come with utilities delivered ahead of the buildings. Operators still have to plan for wind, snow and the distance to suppliers and specialty trades.
What is the biggest schedule risk on a data center shell here?
Long-lead electrical gear and cold-weather concrete are the two. If switchgear is late, the shell sits waiting. If a slab pour misses its window in November, it can wait until spring. We sequence for both.
Can you build the site infrastructure and the building together?
Yes. Infrastructure packages such as the sewer, water and road work in the High Plains Business Park were let as separate bid packages, and we can bid on those or coordinate with the owner's team. We keep the building schedule tied to the utility schedule so nothing waits on a connection.
Who inspects a data center in a county without a big building department?
It depends on who holds local enforcement authority. Some counties and towns have delegated authority and a building official, and others rely on the state. We confirm that early and book inspections ahead, because an inspector may be a long drive away.