Vantage Plans a 500 MW Data Center Campus Near E-470 in Aurora

One of the largest proposed data center developments in Colorado is taking shape on the northeastern edge of the Denver metropolitan area.

Vantage Data Centers is pursuing a campus known as Trident near E-470 and East 48th Avenue in Aurora.

Current plans call for approximately 334 MW of IT capacity and about 500 MW of total electrical demand, according to Vantage Data Centers' vice president of global marketing, as reported in September 2026. The proposed development would occupy approximately 143 acres and include two two-story data center buildings totaling 861,866 square feet.

The project was detailed in reporting by Capital & Main and Colorado Newsline.

Those acreage and floor-area figures reflect the cited September reporting; other filings describe different areas. The current approved plan set would be needed to establish the final campus boundary and building area.

If completed at the proposed scale, Trident would represent a significant addition to Colorado's data center market.

It also provides an important clue about where large data center developers believe major new computing capacity can be built in the state.

A 500 MW project on Denver's northeastern edge

Trident's location is notable.

The project is approximately eight miles from Denver International Airport, along the rapidly developing northeastern edge of Aurora.

This part of the metropolitan area combines large tracts of undeveloped land with access to major transportation and utility infrastructure.

The project is also close enough to Denver to remain within the established Front Range technology and telecommunications ecosystem.

That combination helps explain why northeastern Aurora has attracted significant data center investment.

QTS is already developing a large campus elsewhere on Aurora's eastern edge. CPR reported in July that the QTS campus is expected to require at least 160 MW when complete. CPR's reporting on the QTS Aurora campus

Trident would be considerably larger based on its currently disclosed electrical requirements.

See Aurora data centers and regional infrastructure on our map.

334 MW of IT capacity does not mean 334 MW from the grid

The distinction between IT capacity and total electrical demand is important when evaluating data center projects.

Vantage has identified approximately 334 MW of planned IT capacity for Trident.

Total electrical demand is expected to be approximately 500 MW.

IT capacity refers primarily to the electrical power available to computing equipment.

A data center also requires power for cooling systems, pumps, fans, lighting, electrical conversion equipment, and other facility operations.

For site-selection analysis, total facility demand is therefore the more relevant number when considering the scale of the required utility infrastructure.

A roughly 500 MW load is not a conventional commercial development.

It is a major piece of electrical infrastructure in its own right.

The permitting path is also significant

The Trident site is located in an industrial zone where data centers are a permitted use.

Aurora officials have said the project can receive administrative approval as long as it does not require major adjustments. Under that process, the project would not automatically require a Planning Commission or City Council hearing.

That has become a point of public discussion as residents in nearby neighborhoods have learned more about the project.

LandmAIn recently examined those concerns in Aurora's Data Center Debate Needs Answers Residents Can Check. Questions about noise, power, water and project commitments are becoming part of the local development record.

The situation highlights another variable that increasingly matters in Colorado data center development: entitlement structure.

Two sites can have similar power, fiber and land characteristics while facing very different development timelines because they are located in different jurisdictions or zoning districts. Recent Colorado data center decisions illustrate how approval conditions, appeals and moratoria can change that timeline.

A site where the intended use is already permitted may carry a different entitlement risk than one requiring rezoning, a special-use permit or multiple public hearings.

Why the northeast Denver corridor keeps appearing

Trident is not the only recent AI infrastructure development northeast of Denver.

A separate early-stage proposal in Brighton calls for eight data center buildings totaling approximately 2.52 million square feet near County Road 4 and 50th Avenue. Denver7 reported details of the Brighton proposal. Read our analysis of the Brighton campus proposal.

Brighton is also home to Crusoe's new Spark Factory, where the Denver-based AI infrastructure company plans to manufacture modular data center systems.

The City of Brighton says the Crusoe facility occupies approximately 352,000 square feet and represents about $200 million of investment.

Farther north, additional data center development is occurring in Weld County.

These projects do not prove that the entire corridor is suitable for hyperscale development. Each project has its own utility, land, fiber, and entitlement requirements.

They do show repeated developer interest in the northeastern Front Range.

For infrastructure analysis, repeated activity is worth paying attention to.

Power remains the central question

The scale of Trident makes its power strategy particularly important.

A transmission line passing near a property does not establish that hundreds of megawatts can be delivered to that property. LandmAIn's infrastructure methodology treats transmission and substation proximity as screening evidence rather than proof of capacity.

Large-load development requires a deeper analysis of the electrical system.

That can include the serving utility, available generation, substation capacity, transmission constraints, required network upgrades, delivery schedule and the financial obligations associated with utility service.

Those financial obligations are themselves changing. Xcel's proposed large-load tariff could affect projects of this scale through long-term commitments, demand requirements and responsibility for infrastructure costs.

Trident therefore provides more than another point on a map. It provides a real Colorado example of the relationship among land, power, zoning, community impacts and utility economics.

Explore Aurora and other eastern Denver metro site screens on LandmAIn.

Trident is a useful benchmark for future sites

For anyone evaluating potential Colorado data center land, Trident provides a useful real-world reference point.

The site is large, but not extraordinarily large by rural Colorado standards.

The proposed electrical requirement is enormous.

The property sits on the outer edge of the Denver metropolitan area rather than in the urban core.

It is located in an industrial zoning district.

It is near major transportation infrastructure.

It is also close enough to residential growth that land-use conflicts are becoming part of the development discussion.

Those characteristics help define the tradeoffs facing future Colorado data center projects.

Moving farther onto the Eastern Plains can provide more land and greater separation from residential development. It can also increase distance from existing fiber, municipal infrastructure, workforce, and other services.

Staying closer to Denver can improve access to established infrastructure while increasing land costs and the potential for conflicts with surrounding development.

Neither geography is automatically better.

The infrastructure and development conditions of the individual site determine the answer.

A major new marker on Colorado's data center map

Trident is significant not only because of its proposed size.

A sophisticated hyperscale developer is pursuing a roughly 500 MW project on Denver's northeastern edge. That provides a real-world data point for evaluating the surrounding region.

As the project moves through Aurora's review process, additional filings should provide more information about its power delivery, cooling systems, backup generation, construction schedule, and site design.

Those details will make Trident increasingly useful as a benchmark for other potential Colorado sites.

For now, the project reinforces a broader trend already visible across the Front Range.

Colorado's data center market is expanding beyond isolated facilities. Developers are evaluating sites capable of supporting infrastructure at a much larger scale.