Decoding Data Centers [April Breakfast]

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Decoding Data Centers [April Breakfast]

Wednesday, April 22, 2026, 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM PDT

Category: Breakfast Meetings

Data centers are rapidly growing as an asset class with unique requirements and development challenges. Concerns around noise, traffic, water and energy demands can make achieving community buy-in for these projects difficult. At April Breakfast, our panelists will dispel common misconceptions about data centers and share key community engagement strategies, project planning, and design solutions to improve relations and help push projects across the finish line.

NAIOPWA’s Breakfast Meetings convene industry thought leaders and subject matter experts for engaging, unbiased educational panels and networking. With more than 1,400 annual attendees, we offer timely industry information and networking opportunities featuring the region’s most influential developers, service providers and community leaders. Topics range from financing and leasing to technology, to government and regulatory policy.

Panelists include:

Jami Balint, Partner & Chair of Seattle Real Estate Department, Seyfarth Shaw LLP [Moderator]
Jami advises clients on the full spectrum of transactional real estate and land development matters, with a particular focus on data center, industrial, and build-to-suit leasing transactions. She brings deep experience negotiating complex, large-scale industrial, and digital-infrastructure projects and utilizes her practical, solutions-oriented approach to keep deals moving and get them over the finish line. Jami is known for her uncanny ability to negotiate development agreements—an area where her construction savvy and on-the-ground development insight set her apart from most transactional real estate attorneys. She doesn’t just paper the deal; she understands how facilities actually get built, and she brings that real-world perspective to the negotiating table.

Paul Butler, Senior Community Affairs Manager, Microsoft
Paul Butler serves as a Senior Community Affairs Manager for Microsoft, where he supports communities across the West Coast that are home to the company’s growing datacenter footprint. Based in Seattle and originally from Michigan, Paul brings a relationship driven approach to community engagement, with a career focused on advancing social impact, strengthening local partnerships, and aligning corporate responsibility efforts with community priorities. Prior to joining Microsoft, Paul led community engagement initiatives across several of Amazon’s business lines, including Prime Air drone delivery, last mile delivery stations, and Amazon Web Service datacenters—helping organizations navigate growth while building trust with local stakeholders.

Paul Manzer, Senior Principal, Langan Engineering & Environmental Services
Paul Manzer is a Senior Principal at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services with twenty years of data center land development experience that includes over three hundred data center campuses and facilities across the United States. Paul specializes in site due diligence, master planning and entitlements, in addition to detailed site civil engineering design and permitting. Over the past twenty years, he’s had a front row seat to large campus masterplans growing in scale from 100 megawatts to multiple gigawatts, and the incredible infrastructure efficiencies associated with that evolution.

Maria Poyer, Head of Acquisitions, Verrus
Maria brings over a decade of experience in land development and acquisition, having overseen more than $5.6 billion in real estate transactions, contributing to the expansion of logistical and digital infrastructure for both Amazon and Microsoft. As Senior Acquisition Manager on Microsoft’s Infrastructure Planning & Acquisition team, Maria managed land sourcing, site selection, and contract negotiations. She also helped scale Amazon's real estate portfolio and logistical network, and held key roles at JLL and Bank of America. Maria is passionate about community-building and inclusion, and has served as a board member of CREW Seattle, and on NAIOP’s National Executive Board.

Event Details:

Wednesday, April 22 | 8 a.m. Networking; 9 - 10 a.m. Breakfast Program
Attendees are encouraged to arrive no later than 8:30 a.m. After that time, your seat may be released to the waitlist.
The Westin Bellevue | 600 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue, WA 98004
$105 Members | $55 Student Members | $135 Non-Members (+Sales Tax). Click here to learn more about membership.
Event details and topic are subject to change.

Online registration for this event is now closed. Onsite registrations will be available.