I spent years as the Director of Marshall County Development. Part of that work involved sitting across the table from industrial site selectors — companies actively looking for places to put significant capital investment. Some of those conversations were about data centers.

Marshalltown kept coming up as a candidate. And it kept getting passed over. Not because of our land. Not because of our location. Because data centers run on electricity — massive amounts of it — and Alliant Energy, our local utility, did not offer a rate that made Marshalltown cost-competitive for that kind of customer. The investment went elsewhere.

Most people in Marshalltown never knew those conversations were happening. There was no point in getting the community excited about an opportunity that was close but not quite there. So we watched it go quietly. Now it is here — and we are on the verge of saying no before we have ever been introduced to what we are saying no to.

What makes this moment different is not just the rate structure — it is everything underneath it. The land. The highway access. The certified industrial site. The utility infrastructure. The water system expansion is already underway. These were not accidents.

They were built over twenty and thirty years of quiet, unglamorous community investment. Marshalltown is sitting at an intersection of resources that looks almost like it was designed for this moment. The one piece that was missing finally fell into place.

And because of that, Marshalltown currently holds a negotiating advantage over larger Iowa cities that rarely comes to a community our size. Iowa law right now gives data centers locating in smaller communities a longer tax exemption than those locating in Des Moines or Cedar Rapids. That difference represents tens of millions of dollars in operating savings over the life of a project. A developer who wants that advantage has a short list of qualifying communities. We are on it. That puts us in a position to negotiate — on infrastructure costs, on workforce commitments, on community benefit agreements, on terms that protect taxpayers rather than just hand incentives away.

That leverage disappears the moment we post a moratorium. You cannot negotiate with someone you have told not to call.

It may also disappear at the statehouse. Iowa has already tightened its data center incentive structure once this year. Advocacy groups are pushing for further restrictions. Other states are eliminating their incentives entirely. The window Marshalltown is sitting in right now is real, but it is not permanent.

On June 22, the council will consider a two-year moratorium on data centers. Councilman Yepez-Gomez’s concerns about water and utility capacity are legitimate and deserve real answers. But those answers come from talking to Alliant, to Marshalltown Water Works, to Marshall County Development — not from a blanket two-year pause before a single conversation has taken place.

Marshalltown may decide, after that conversation, that data centers are not the right fit. That is the community’s call to make. But that call has not been made yet — because the conversation has not happened yet.

For as long as I can remember, this council has complained about roads it cannot fix, budgets it cannot balance, and development it watches land in other towns. This is that development. The one other towns got while we watched. The one people around here have been waiting 20-plus years for without even knowing it was possible.

It is standing at the door right now. Don’t turn your back on it before you’ve even gone on a first date. I watched this opportunity leave once. The reason it left no longer exists.

Tom Deimerly of Marshalltown is a downtown property owner and the former director of economic development for the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce.