‘The spookiest thing imaginable in Seattle’: Jake questions data center fears as small facility eyed for Starbucks HQ building
Jun 17, 2026, 6:42 PM | Updated: 6:42 pm
As a small data center is being eyed for the ground floor of the Starbucks headquarters building in SODO, according to The Seattle Times, KIRO host Jake Skorheim questioned whether the fear over data centers is warranted.
“The building owners are thinking about renting out some of the unused space, which used to be an Amazon Fresh, apparently, and so what they’re discussing now is putting in a data center, which is just the spookiest thing imaginable in Seattle,” Jake said on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio.
Jake said that when people in Seattle hear the word “data center,” they immediately tighten up.
“Oh my gosh, data, what if data comes for us, and it comes to get us?” he quipped.
Jake asked Spike what the number one issue for people would be regarding data centers.
“It would probably be the potential environmental impact that a data center draws with regard to water use and power use,” Spike responded.
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Are data centers really the water hog Seattle thinks they are?
Jake cited an article on Seattle Red that pointed out data centers only use a third of the water that U.S. golf courses consume annually.
“Is it really something to be worried about?” Jake asked. “Like, everybody wants clean water, we want to make sure they’re doing it safely, but if it’s far less than golf courses, which nobody’s running and hiding from a golf course, we run to golf courses, we love them.”
“What if we put data centers below putting greens?” Spike replied.
“There’s a solution right there,” Jake responded.
Earlier this month, the Seattle City Council placed a temporary freeze on new data center siting while the city conducts impact studies. The decision follows reports in April that four companies approached Seattle City Light to build five large-scale data centers.
Watch the full discussion in the video above
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3
