Shovel-Ready Datacenter Sites in Iowa
At a glance
Pre-permitted, pre-graded sites marketed for rapid development. Shovel-ready designation compresses entitlement risk, making these among the fastest paths from acquisition to vertical construction.
Top shovel-ready sites in Iowa
| Site | Type | County | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwood - Top of Iowa | Shovel-Ready | Worth County | — | 1 MW | 4.3 yrs | 53.3 |
| Lake Mills - Larson Site | Shovel-Ready | Winnebago County | — | 20 MW | 4.3 yrs | 52.9 |
| Forest City Rail Park | Shovel-Ready | Hancock County | — | 1 MW | 4.3 yrs | 52.6 |
| Osage - South Mitchell County Industrial Site | Shovel-Ready | Mitchell County | — | 15 MW | 4.3 yrs | 51.6 |
| Mona - Rail Site | Shovel-Ready | Mitchell County | — | 5 MW | 4.3 yrs | 51.5 |
| St. Ansgar Industrial Park 1 | Shovel-Ready | Mitchell County | — | 10 MW | 4.3 yrs | 51.4 |
| St. Ansgar Industrial Park 2 | Shovel-Ready | Mitchell County | — | 10 MW | 4.3 yrs | 51.4 |
| Osage NW Industrial Park | Shovel-Ready | Mitchell County | — | 15 MW | 4.3 yrs | 51.2 |
| Postville Business Park | Shovel-Ready | Clayton County | — | 15 MW | 4.3 yrs | 50.5 |
| Decorah Business Park | Shovel-Ready | Winneshiek County | — | 25 MW | 4.3 yrs | 49.7 |
| Lime Springs Industrial Park | Shovel-Ready | Howard County | — | 20 MW | 4.3 yrs | 47.3 |
How does Iowa compare with other states for shovel-ready sites?
With 11 sites, Iowa ranks 6th of the 6 states that have any shovel-ready candidate sites. Virginia leads with 1,752. Nationally, shovel-ready sites average 52.3/100 DC Readiness, below the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, Iowa averages 56.3, the 8th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.3 years.
Where are the highest-scoring shovel-ready sites in Iowa?
The top 11 range from 53.3 to 47.3 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Mitchell County (5). By grid region, 11 are in MISO.
County pages: Mitchell County · Worth County · Winnebago County · Hancock County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these shovel-ready sites have?
Their counties have a median of 10 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 35 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.3 years. None of the 4 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone.
Frequently asked questions
How many shovel-ready datacenter sites are in Iowa?
GridCensus catalogs 11 shovel-ready datacenter candidate sites in Iowa, 0.5% of the national total for this type (6th of 6 states).
What is a shovel-ready datacenter site?
Pre-permitted, pre-graded sites marketed for rapid development. Shovel-ready designation compresses entitlement risk, making these among the fastest paths from acquisition to vertical construction.
What is the best shovel-ready datacenter site in Iowa?
By DC Readiness Score, Northwood - Top of Iowa in Worth County ranks first at 53.3/100, followed by Lake Mills - Larson Site in Winnebago County at 52.9.
Which Iowa counties have the best shovel-ready sites?
The top 11 shovel-ready sites in Iowa are concentrated in Mitchell County (5).
How does Iowa score for datacenters overall?
All 2,572 scored sites in Iowa average 56.3/100 DC Readiness, the 8th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on shovel-ready sites and Iowa
Shovel-Ready sites in other states
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
About this data
Source: GridCensus composite of HIFLD transmission and substation data, EIA, FEMA National Risk Index, FCC broadband data, PeeringDB and ISO interconnection queues, as published November 12, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Shovel-Ready datacenter sites in Iowa”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/shovel-ready/iowa (data as of November 12, 2026).
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for Shovel-Ready sites in Iowa is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.