Another data center developer is eyeing land just outside of Lincoln

More than 560 acres on the edge of Northwest Lincoln are being optioned to a Nevada solar and data center developer, according to records obtained by Nebraska Public Media News.

It's the latest in a string of purchase options taken out by data centers in Lancaster County.

There’s Monolith and Stark Power data centers just outside of Hallam in southern Lancaster County. And there’s the Google data center near Interstate 80 and North 56th Street that is operating, but still under construction.

The most recent purchase option lists Larry Coffey of Lincoln optioning his property to “Coffee Grounds Data LLC.”

And while that LLC's name is vague, the purchase option lists Ricardo Graf, the chief development officer for Arevia Power.

There’s a similar listing like that in Mayes County, Oklahoma.

In a purchase option from December 2025, the grantor “Rock Creek Land & Cattle” optioned land to “Rock Creek Data LLC.”

Graf’s name is mentioned there, too.

Arevia is a utility-scale solar developer. It’s also gotten into data center development – including the proposed 3,700-acre data center outside of Boise, Idaho. Its subsidiary company, Rhea Data, is looking to build Idaho’s largest data center, with around a 600-megawatt capacity.

Coffey confirmed the option with Nebraska Public Media News, saying he was approached earlier in the year about his land. He added that the developers are eyeing the land for a data center.

In a response to Nebraska Public Media News, Graf said the company "Coffee Grounds Data LLC" is evaluating the property as part of an "early-stage site diligence process."

"Given how preliminary everything is, there isn’t much additional project-specific information we can responsibly provide at this point," Graf said in his statement.

He added that this early in the process, a development plan hasn't been determined.

An option is essentially an agreement that gives the buyer the right – but not an obligation – to buy the land within a certain timeframe for an agreed-upon price. This option is for four years.

The land option comes after a long silence among Lancaster County Commissioners on data centers. They only spoke up recently, after concerns continued from Hallam residents about Monolith’s and Stark Power’s plans.

Initially, commissioner Matt Schulte proposed a moratorium while studies are done to examine future data centers in the county.

However, the board halted plans to vote on a potential moratorium after learning that Bold Education — or Bold Nebraska, a political advocacy group founded by Nebraska Democratic party chair Jane Kleeb — had applied for a zoning code text amendment that would address the issue.

Now, the board is creating a data center task force to mull possible regulations. It’s set to give its recommendations by the end of December.

County Commissioner Sean Flowerday said earlier this month that any land will need to be zoned as industrial to get a permit to start data center development. And as of right now, that isn’t possible in Lancaster County.

“The truth is there already is an effective moratorium in Lancaster County because you only build these things on industrial land…The actual truth is that there's very, very little, there's very few spaces where you could pull a data center or much of anything that was currently zoned industrial out there,” Flowerday said during a Sept. 10 County Board staff meeting.

Eighteen counties in the state currently have moratoriums on data center development.