A wealthy businessman in Missouri has shrugged off local outrage after selling a farm, spanning over 600 acres, to be turned into a data center. 

LB Eckelkamp Jr, CEO and board chairman of the Bank of Washington, was surprised to see backlash after selling the 644 acre farm near Interstate 44 at Gray Summit that has been in his family for around 20 years. 

'I knew there would be public attention because we saw it happening in other places. I had no idea there would be this much public attention when we originally entered the contract,' the 82-year-old of Washington told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. 

But he believes the data center will be a 'huge benefit' to Franklin County. 

'I can't think of a better use for the property because of the minimal problems that it causes and the huge benefit that it gives to the area,' he continued. 

Eckelkamp said his family bought the farm for 'investment purposes' like development, and they were waiting for the opportunity to take advantage of that. 

The businessman said that they had been approached by many developers, but ultimately chose to sign with Provident Data Centers - a move that enraged locals. 

'The property is apparently ideally situated for a data center,' Eckelkamp told the outlet, noting access to utility lines and the size of the lot allowing for a 'very large data center' that can keep open land around it. 

But data centers have been largely opposed by many locals across the country, including in Franklin County. 

Around 850 people packed into the gym at Union High School to watch the Franklin County planning commission discuss the plans for developing the data center. 

The meeting lasted almost eleven hours long, with 174 speakers addressing the board. Most speakers opposed the data centers proposed for both Pacific and Gray Summit, the Dispatch reported. 

Much of the debate consisted of proposals for size and noise limits, as well as concerns over the impacts the center may have on surrounding nature or water and electricity users. 

On Facebook, one local said: 'NO DATA CENTERS!! I wanted to attend and will go to the next meeting. Data centers can go in urban areas.. knock down a old abandoned factory, ware house or shopping mall and put it in those places... we have enough unneeded development out here. Cant wait for more gas stations & liquor stores.'

Another commented: 'Data centers pose significant environmental and community challenges, including immense electricity consumption, high water usage for cooling (often millions of gallons daily), and noise/light pollution. They strain local power grids, leading to higher energy bills for residents, and often require fossil fuel backup generators, causing air pollution.'

Yet, the wealthy businessman said that the necessary concerns have been addressed. 

'We carefully consider all of the objections that have been made,' he told the outlet. 'In fact, we have, in my opinion, completely resolved any valid objections.'

Eckelkamp said that the center would be using 'very little water' and the developer has proposed a closed-loop cooling system. 

The Texas-based developer also promised that noise levels would remain around the same current level. The banking tycoon told the outlet that the developer 'can guarantee that there will be no more noise emanating than there is today.'

The developer also promised to pay for additional electrical work that may be necessary for the center, Eckelkamp told the Dispatch. 

According to Eckelkamp , the site is around 1,000 feet from any residential area and even further from the Shaw Nature Reserve. 

'The site on our property will be totally invisible from the Shaw Nature Reserve or anywhere along Robertsville Road, which divides our property from the Shaw Nature Reserve,' he said. 

The center, despite the outrage, is estimated to generate over $50 million per year in new tax revenue for local governments, officials said. 

'There's going to be a huge benefit for all of the residents of Franklin County because of the tax that's generated,' Eckelkamp said. 

'Any minor inconvenience for a very few people, if any - if any - is more than overridden ten times over by the benefits.'

The banking tycoon also shot down fears over the health risks of a data center, such as 'hurting the brain and all kinds of stuff,' which he described as 'totally inaccurate.'

The mass amounts of criticism has also fallen on his lap, but he said he remains proud of the choices he has made. 

The rise in data centers cropping up around the country amid the ever-increasing tech and AI industry has led to numerous infuriated locals. 

Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon are rapidly scaling AI infrastructure, and Northern Virginia has emerged as the data center capital of the world. 

Its flat land, power infrastructure and dense fiber optic cable network from the dot com boom has lent it an upper hand as AI continues to grow. 

Just outside of Washington DC, one home building company sold Amazon a parcel of land for data centers for a whopping $700 million. 

The developer had paid just $50 million for the land a few years earlier and had planned to build around 516 homes there. But now, the development of data centers over homes has caused a 75,000 shortage, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors. 

New data centers are also causing energy usage and costs to surge across the country. 

According to data from the federal Energy Information Administration, residential electricity prices in September rose 20 percent in Illinois, 12 percent in Ohio and nine percent in Virginia compared to the same period the previous year.

In 2023, Virginia state lawmakers facing the start of the AI infrastructure boom commissioned an impact study which found that demand from data centers 'would drive up Virginia’s energy usage 183 percent by 2040.'

That was in contrast to a projected 15 percent growth of energy use without any new data centers.

The study also determined that the costs of that energy spike would likely be passed onto residential consumers, driving up their electricity bills by as much as 25 percent in regional markets.

But those projected consequences have done nothing to slow down the AI infrastructure boom.

OpenAI recently announced that it, in partnership with Nvidia and other companies, would build out several new data centers across the country that are projected to consume 17 gigawatts of electricity.

For some perspective, that is enough electricity to power all of Switzerland and Portugal combined, Cornell University professor Fengqi You told The Blubber.

The data center construction frenzy has driven up the price of land sales across the country.

Many homeowners with property near the sites of these new data centers are deeply unhappy.

The industrial atmosphere created by the enormous warehouses, as well as the constant hum of server farms and risks of increased electric bills, are causing pushback.

Elena Schlossberg, an anti-data center activist, told the Wall Street Journal: 'Nothing can live next to data-center development like this except more data-center development.'

Last year, Loudoun County made it so all new data center developments must be approved by the County Board.

And a proposed bill in the state legislature would make it so data centers could only be built in areas zoned for industrial purposes.

In late January, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill to protect residential consumers from electricity bill hikes caused by data centers.

The bill requires data centers and utility companies to agree to contract terms that protect regular consumers, but critics say the protections are not strong enough because the Public Service Commission would still be allowed to raise electricity rates in response to rising demand created by data centers.

But data center developers are fighting back against growing opposition. They have made major political contributions, including the largest share of those received by members of Prince William County’s board of supervisors.

An Amazon spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the company's data centers, 'create high-quality jobs and generate significant local property tax revenue that helps fund schools, public safety and infrastructure.'