The iconic Kansas City Star old printing house The Crossroads glass building will become a data center powering artificial intelligence.

Software and data hosting company Patmos, which presents itself as an alternative to big tech companies focused on free speech, announced in a statement press release On Thursday, the company will transform the 400,000-square-foot former Star building at 1601 McGee St. into its flagship data center in a billion-dollar project.

The former printing press will become a more than 100 megawatt “AI innovation facility.” Patmos has existing data centers in Kansas City, Dallas and Phoenix, and the new expansion will allow the company to meet customer demand, the release said.

“In a world where big tech is investing more than $20 million per (megawatt) to build new data centers in the coming years, the infrastructure already in this building allows us to build at a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time,” Joe Morgan, Patmos’ chief infrastructure officer, said in a statement. “By breathing new life into historic structures, we can create sustainable and innovative AI data centers. These buildings not only preserve architectural heritage, but also reduce the environmental impact of new construction. These revitalized spaces can become hubs of technological advancement, fueling the future of AI while honoring the past.

The release said Patmos expects a small portion of the system’s capacity to be online next month and a larger portion within 18 months.

The Star’s $200 million, two-block glass and copper building opened in 2006 and included four state-of-the-art printing presses in a growing downtown. The press printed The Star and other national and local newspapers.

Star employees consolidated into the building in 2018 ahead of the redevelopment of the newspaper’s historic headquarters, nearby at 1729 Grand Blvd., into a mixed-use building.

But The Star left the building in 2021 as part of its parent company’s bankruptcy reorganization. The Star’s office is now at Crown Center and printing is done in Des Moines.

The star sold the McGee Street building in 2019 to Ambassador Hospitality, LLC from the Privitera family, which Jackson County records still list as the owner, for $30.1 million.

Officials have already considered the Star construction site for a future Royal baseball stadium downtown. In April, Jackson County voters strongly rejected a tax this would have helped finance a stadium on this site.