The co-owners of Starbucks Center, a historic mixed-use complex in Seattle's Sodo neighbourhood and the headquarters of Starbucks, have filed a conceptual site plan with the city of Seattle to assess the feasibility of a small-scale data centre on the building's vacant ground floor, as reported by The Seattle Times.

The Seattle Times reported that co-owner Kevin Daniels submitted the conceptual plan to gauge whether the site at 2401 Utah Ave. S. could sustain a data centre, though no specific tenant has been identified. The 45,600 sq ft space has been empty since an Amazon Fresh pickup site vacated in January 2024.

The proposal covers up to 25,600 sq ft of the 1.3 million sq ft main office building and 20,000 sq ft of the 180,000 sq ft south building. Whether the existing infrastructure and power systems can support data centre operations remains uncertain, according to Daniels.

The conceptual plan was filed days after the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to enact a one-year moratorium on new large data centres within city limits drawing more than 20 megavolt-amperes. At its proposed scale, the Starbucks Center scheme falls below that threshold and is not subject to the ban.

Daniels described himself as initially resistant to the idea, saying one of his partners had made him aware of the strength of demand in the data centre market. He said he remained of the old school and was still mixed on whether it was a good fit for the space, adding that around ten possible tenants, mostly home improvement businesses, had also expressed interest in the vacant area.

The complex itself carries significant architectural heritage. Both buildings were constructed in the 1910s and housed Sears for almost a century, with Sears adding a showpiece tower in 1915. The site operated as the oldest continuously operating Sears store in the world until its closure in 2014, when real estate developer Nitze-Stagen, which acquired the buildings in the early 1990s alongside Daniels, began repositioning the complex.

Starbucks has occupied the building as its global headquarters since 1997. Its current lease runs through 2038 with no termination options, and the proposed data centre footprint would not overlap with any of Starbucks' leased space, according to permit records.

View the full report and permit details here.