The data center boom in Quincy, Grant County, continues.

Base Partners, a San Francisco-based data center developer, is announcing plans to develop up to 400,000 square feet in Quincy.

The data center, slated for 68 acres of land in the agricultural community, would be the fourth in town, joining Microsoft, Yahoo and Intuit.

Aaron Wangenheim, president of Base Partners, said his company has been talking to several prospective tenants for the data center. The first phase of the project -- a 100,000 square foot building -- will be built on spec, he added, and should be completed within a year.

The Internet companies, including Google, have been attracted to the Columbia River basin for the cheap electricity from the region's hydroelectric dams. Data centers, which are basically huge warehouses full of server computers that run Internet sites and business databases, for example, are major consumers of power.

Base Partners, on this one-page PDF spec sheet on the project, lists "lowest power cost in U.S." as the top answer to the question, "Why Quincy?"

Wangenheim said the likes of Microsoft and Yahoo have been "trail blazers" in Quincy, helping smooth out what he called "infrastructure issues" in getting their data centers up and running.

"Yeah, there's a lot of power and yes it's cheap, but delivery to the sites is still difficult," he said, adding that water and sewer delivery is another challenge.

The "trail blazer" companies have started the process of resolving those issues, he said. "Those guys mitigated the risk for us."