AI Gives Unloved Downtown Buildings New Life as Data Centers

The Kansas City Star built a $200 million complex to house a state-of-the-art printing press in 2006. Less than 15 years later, the iconic structure of blue and green glass came to symbolize the collapse of print news when parent company McClatchy sold it at a steep discount.

Now the building is getting a second act as a data center, enabled by two big attractions. One is the robust electrical hook-ups it once needed for the printing press. The other is its downtown address as proximity becomes more valuable for emerging applications in artificial intelligence.

“It’s not your typical data ...