Data center projects don’t move in a straight line. In the early stages, almost everything is still in flux: how much power is available, whether the project needs 10 buildings or 3, whether land is still being assembled. Early conversations with a community are often necessarily general: a headline commitment like “we’re going to invest a billion dollars in your community” is enough to open the door, but it isn’t enough to earn lasting trust.

At the same time, Jeff regularly runs into the same misconceptions in new markets. Communities often assume data centers consume enormous amounts of water, or that they create few jobs. In reality, the picture is more nuanced, data centers typically create fewer jobs than some other developments, but the jobs they do create tend to be higher-quality and higher-paying, on top of the substantial construction employment generated during the build. Correcting the narrative requires more than a talking point; it requires credible data.

Jeff’s familiarity with IMPLAN goes back to his time as a public-sector economic developer, where he worked alongside consultants who used the platform. That experience shaped how he thinks about bringing data-driven economic analysis in-house at QTS.

Today, IMPLAN comes into play in the middle-to-late stages of a project, once the fundamentals, power, land, building count, are settled. As plans solidify, Jeff uses IMPLAN to move the conversation from a general investment pledge to a substantiated, data-backed story about the value a project will bring.

A key part of that value is credibility. IMPLAN’s outputs are widely used, well-regarded, and transparent about where the underlying data comes from, a major reason QTS relies on the platform. Inputs can be adjusted and refined project to project, but the outputs stakeholders see are built on a solid, defensible foundation.