COPT: Des Moines Van Meter Campus

COPT Defense Properties (formerly Corporate Office Properties Trust) owns about 365 acres of farmland on 340th Trail in Van Meter, Dallas County, west of Des Moines. It bought the land in late September 2024 for $32 million through IA 340 Trail LLC. This is COPT's first data center shell site outside Northern Virginia.

• Land: seven parcels between 340th Trail and the Raccoon River. Van Meter annexed them and zoned them Light Industrial to attract a data center. The land is still farmed.
• Plan: up to 15 buildings of 220,000 sq ft each, about 3.3 million sq ft in total, built in three phases of five. Two on-site substations serve the plan.
• Model: COPT develops powered shells under long-term triple-net pre-leases. COPT provides the land, core building and basic power. The tenant pays for the critical power, fiber and data center fit-out.
• Tenant: COPT plans the campus for its existing Fortune 100 cloud computing customer. That customer also leases COPT's 33 Northern Virginia shells.
• Power: the site is in MidAmerican Energy territory. A MidAmerican 345/161 kV transmission corridor runs past the land to the Booneville substation, about 3 km south.
• Status: in 2026 COPT said development is waiting on power. It was at an impasse with the utility on terms and had stepped back while others led in the market.