- Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz owns over 25,000 acres near a proposed data center in Box Elder County.
- Schultz said he was "blindsided" by news of the data center last month and said he bought the property before knowing about the proposal.
- He said the ranch land he owns is "remote" and not suitable for development.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz owns more than 25,000 acres of land not far from the site of a planned large data center in Box Elder County, a review of property records shows.
The Hooper Republican said he was "blindsided" by the news of the data center when he first learned about it last month, saying he purchased the land before the proposal and said he had "no part" in decisions around the development. The parcels of ranch land he owns are not adjacent to the data center area — the closest is a few miles and the furthest is between 10 and 15 — and the speaker said they are "remote" and mostly unsuitable for development.
"I fully accept that there should be additional scrutiny on me as an elected official, and I wholeheartedly get that, but I also want people to look at what the facts are and the facts are as a property owner in that area, this is not beneficial to me or to my property," he told KSL. "Nobody wants a data center built down the road from them. I don't want a data center built down the road from my farm and my ranch. So, it doesn't help me out."
Schultz said he has concerns about the data center's potential impact on water availability in the area, and publicly supports conducting independent studies on those impacts.
"I felt blindsided when I found out about it in the first of April," he added. "I felt like there should have been more conversations around it."
Schultz owns the land through several companies he owns — Sawmill Ranch LLC, Keller Cattle Corp. and Mike Schultz Inc. Schultz also serves as the president of Sawmill Ranch, according to the latest financial disclosure form he filed with the state.
Elevate Utah, a progressive political group, revealed in a social media post Thursday that Mike Schultz Inc., a holding company owned by the speaker, owns 640 acres a few miles from the data center project.
A review of other property records by KSL shows that Sawmill Ranch owns close to 1,300 acres about four miles as the crow flies from a separate portion of land slated for the data center project, and the Keller Cattle Corp. owns 23,575 acres just over 10 miles from the project area.
But the speaker said the terrain makes for an even longer distance to drive between his property and the proposed sites for the data center. It would take approximately 20 minutes to drive between the Sawmill Ranch property and the nearest Stratos Project Area site, according to Google Maps.
Schultz also dismissed concerns about the two parcels of property he owns through Mike Schultz Inc., saying he is in the middle of a deal to swap the farmland and that it is not suitable for development.
"It's not even developable," he said. "Some of it is so steep you can't even get the tractor on."
He went on to say the land is "completely for my farming and ranching operations" and said it's "ridiculous that Elevate even tried to make a deal out of it."
He said the other land is used for farming and ranching, and that he has no plans to sell those parcels or to use them for anything different.
Elevate Utah responded to Schultz's explanation of the land and called for clarification on when the speaker realized his land was not far from the proposed project.
"Speaker Schultz has offered an explanation that his land is hilly, far-ish, not yet traded, and that he — one of the most powerful people in the state — has no authority over this project," the organization said. "While we appreciate the scenic tour of Speaker Schultz's allegedly unbuildable hillside, the outstanding questions remain unanswered: When did he know about the Stratos project, when did he realize his land was nearby and why did Utahns have to dig through county records to find this?"
"He can call us ridiculous all he wants," the group added. "All we're asking for are answers the public deserves. And we don't think that's ridiculous at all."
The massive data center project, which is backed by Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary, has quickly turned into one of the most heated political issues in Utah. Utah's Military Installation Development Authority signed off on a development agreement, tax-incentive plan and other measures last month, paving the way for the project to advance.
Two Utah lawmakers — Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton and Sen. Jerry Stevenson, R-Layton — are among the seven voting members on the Military Installation Development Authority board.
Because the bulk of the project area is on private land in Box Elder County, Box Elder County commissioners had to sign off on the plans and they approved the needed two resolutions on May 4.
Plans call for up to 9 gigawatts of power production to serve data centers and other operations spread across about 40,000 acres of land.
That land is split into three sections, two larger portions and a smaller section adjacent to I-84, near Rattlesnake Pass, according to Box Elder County.
Property records show a holding company tied to Schultz purchased two parcels of land totaling 640 acres a few miles from the smaller section on the other side of I-84. The deeds for the two properties were transferred to Mike Schultz Inc. in early January 2025.
Schultz said he is in the process of swapping those parcels of land with another farmer in the area. That transaction hasn't gone through yet, but would give him similar land next to a piece of property he already owns near the Utah-Idaho border, the speaker said.
The Sawmill Ranch property is about four miles northeast of the largest swath of land included in the data center project. The North Promontory Mountains lie between the Stratos Project Area and the Sawmill Ranch property. The deed to that land was transferred to Sawmill Ranch in December of 2023.
The third, and largest property, owned by Keller Cattle Corp., is about 10 miles south of the southeast section of the Stratos Project Area at its closest and several miles north of the Great Salt Lake's Rozel Bay. Most of that land was purchased in 2022.
Last month, O'Leary, the backer of the project, told "Fox and Friends" that he had met with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Adams and Schultz about the data center project in late 2025.
"They said, 'We want to build this thing, can you do it?'" O'Leary recalled. "I said, 'I've got the team. I can raise the capital. Do you have the land?' And they said, '40,000 acres.'"
Schultz denied being part of that meeting to the Deseret News earlier this week, saying he first heard of the project in early April.
"He did reach out for a meeting, but my schedule was busy and I did not have a chance to meet," Schultz said.
He added: "So, you know, I'm just a little over 30 days with this information as well, so I'm not trying to make a statement one way or the other around it. … But I was not made aware of it until just a little over 30 days ago."
Cox met with O'Leary for an undisclosed reason on Jan. 8 of this year, according to his public calendar.
Contributing: Clayre Scott
