A day after the data center was announced, the Emporia City Commission unanimously annexed the designated acreage into the city. The opposition had one petition to force a public vote bounced by the county clerk on a technicality, but a new petition has been submitted. The local planning commission recommended, 6-1, to include the rezoned land in the new âdigital infrastructure overlayâ zone, after hours of public hearings in which sentiment was so hostile that many turned their chairs around when Garrett Nordstrom, representing the proposal, approached the microphone to address the planning commission.
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The economic development system is broken.
That a proposed data center could progress with such speed through the slow and deliberate machinery of municipal government is alarming. That the proposal could advance while the true owners and developers, whoever they may be, are shielded by the secrecy of limited liability companies is outrageous.
Iâve lambasted civic leaders before, including in a column last year about Emporia being the new unemployment capital of Kansas. But this twist in the data center story, in which the man promoted as being the developer of the proposed data center swore he was not the developer, takes the cake.
Where is the due diligence?
Shouldnât the local chamber, the city staff, city commissioners or those on the planning commission have noted the red flag that Pinkston had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and followed up on it? The local planning commission, a seven-member volunteer board, has taken months to deal with a zoning variance for a drive-through coffee stand near the local Walmart. But it took a week after the first public hearing for the commission to recommend approval â in the face of heavy public opposition â of the data center requests.
Nordstrom, the spokesman for Pinkston and the data center, deflected questions about the bankruptcy filings. Instead of focusing on the bankruptcy, Nordstrom said, the public should ask instead whether the data center project demonstrated the financial, technical, and other requirements needed for success.
But the fact that Pinkstonâs creditors were asking about the data center as part of the bankruptcy proceeding â and that Pinkston told a substantially different story than the one made for public consumption â should validate the publicâs concerns.
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At 84, Pinkston has spent most of his career as a real estate developer in California and Hawaii, but he grew up on a ranch in nearby Chase County. In a media campaign aimed at winning over local residents, an image has been heavily featured of Pinkston in cowboy hat and rumpled blue shirt posing on a horse against a suspiciously generic rural background. Pinkston has been portrayed as a savvy businessman who came back home to help bring growth and jobs to the community.
But when heâs allowed to speak for himself â as he did on local radio June 19 â the folksy demeanor drops and he engages in the kind of fearmongering once heard from the likes of John Birchers.
âIf you folks would like to learn Chinese to watch Netflix, just stick around,â Pinkston said of those opposed to the data center plan.
AI is used for everything now, he said, from video streaming to billing for the local hamburger shop.
âIf you want all of that run out of China, just keep pushing back,â he said.
The implication is clear: If you oppose the data center, then youâre a godless communist who hates America. You may also hate horses, cowboy hats and plaid shirts.
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At the upcoming meeting of the city commission, officials should ask Nordstrom just who the hell really owns Kanza Park Place LLC. What has been presented to the public thus far appears to be a lie, based on Pinkstonâs bankruptcy testimony. If Pinkston didnât write that letter to his âneighborsâ in the Flint Hills, who did? Why did Pinkston tell a local radio audience that he was the âmaster developerâ of the project, in charge of all decisions, when he contradicted himself in the creditorâs meeting?
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