Land owner Jimmer Pinjuv joins Morning Newswatch to discuss Joplin data center

The buzz around Joplin the last several weeks has been the possibility of an AI data center being built on the land known as Wildwood Ranch.

At a city council meeting held at 6 p.m. tonight, there will be two votes held. The first will be to annex the roughly 540 acres of land to be a part of the city of Joplin, and the second will be to rezone the land from residential to heavy industrial.

Land owner and developer Jimmer Pinjuv joined the KZRG Morning Newswatch to clear the air on some misconceptions about the possible data center.

The biggest concern for many is will a data center balloon the cost of water and electricity utilities, and Pinjuv assures that’s not the case because the state of Missouri has laws to prevent it from happening.

“The state of Missouri has a law in place, Senate Bill 4, which I think a lot of people have heard about now, that protects the rate base from having any potential impact fallback from this development,” Pinjuv said. “The hyperscalers have become so critically aware of the backlash towards these things that they don't mess around anymore. 

“In terms of utilities, we've been dealing with Missouri American and Liberty for a long time. Missouri American for over a year and Liberty for over two years, and basically the design and the costs associated with this project are being put forth to the hyperscaler to pay for prior to construction start.”

Pinjuv added there will be representatives from each of the major stakeholders at the meeting tonight, including Liberty and Missouri American, to discuss those questions and concerns.

Environmental impact came up among the concerns, but Pinjuv said the data center is one of the least impactful industrial developments.

“In terms of pollution, traffic, noise, data centers are on the absolute lowest end of the spectrum,” Pinjuv said. “The amount of coverage on the site is minuscule compared to what it would be if it were a traditional industrial park.”

“I built my own home out there,” he said. “I moved to Joplin from Las Vegas because I love this place. I want to die here. I've picked a tree out on my property for my wife to bury me under, and my personal home is within 1,000 feet of where the data center will be. And I built my daughter's home across the street, and she backs up to this property. 

“If I thought I were going to degrade the property values or the environment here in this town, there is not a chance that I would be pursuing this. But to my mind, and I know there's a lot of people who would disagree with me, this is by far the least intrusive use of this piece of property that can and will happen.”

Pinjuv reiterated he wants everyone to show up to the city council meeting this evening so they can have their voices heard, and so they can hear factual information directly from the sources. In fact, the entire reason he wants Joplin to annex the land is because it gives the city much more control over the project than if it was left to the county, and it will give Joplin added recognition in the tech world.

“We would have no regulation because obviously neither Jasper or Newton County have a permit process for anything beyond septic and we would be utilizing city sewer anyhow, so there wouldn't be any need for that,” Pinjuv said. “So we have no need whatsoever to go through this process. But the data center developer and myself feel like it's a far better way to start this process to bring it into the city and allow the city to have some control. And then for the long-term benefit in terms of tax base, it's better to the entire community for it to be a part of the city of Joplin. It'll also put the city of Joplin on the map in terms of a high tech personality that it doesn't have today and it will bring additional jobs to the area in that same space.”