05 · Services-as-software
An AI-augmented predevelopment team that delivers site evaluation, permitting strategy, interconnection analysis, incentive filings, and regulatory compliance at 50–70% of traditional consulting fees, 3–5x the speed, and every deliverable as a structured artifact you keep.
Preview
Every engagement lives as structured artifacts in your own workspace. When the engagement ends, you inherit a working Cliffcenter instance — not a PDF email attachment.
Active engagements
4 running · 3 fixed-scope · 1 embed
The problem
CBRE Data Center Solutions manages 700+ sites with a dedicated Romonet analytics acquisition. JLL runs RED, OneMapIQ, and LeasingOS. Newmark has a dedicated capital markets practice under Brent Mayo. Every one of them charges $250–$500 an hour, delivers in slides, and moves at the cadence of a retained engagement.
IMARC, 2025
IMARC, 2025
The wedge
Scale AI started as humans labeling data by hand, then productized the workflow that made the labeling efficient. We do the same for predevelopment. Early on the work is mostly human; every engagement becomes training data for the next automation. Over time, the software earns the right to replace more of the manual work.
This is why services-as-software matters here. The platform could take 24 months to mature past the current feature set. Customers need the outcome now. We deliver the outcome now and use every delivery to feed the platform.
The pricing is our public commitment to honest economics: flat fees, short cycles, source artifacts. The firms that are afraid of automation bill by the hour and ship in slides. We do the opposite.
How it works
Site evaluation, interconnection diligence, permitting strategy, incentive optimization, BTM deal structuring, regulatory compliance, or the full stack. Fixed scope, fixed price, fixed delivery date.
Most engagements start at $25K and close within 30 days.
One Cliffcenter domain lead, one AI-augmented analyst, and a senior reviewer. The analyst runs the software; the lead runs the relationship; the reviewer puts eyes on every artifact before it ships to you.
Team size scales with scope. Most engagements are three to five people.
Every deliverable is a first-class object in our platform — a diligence memo, a pathway analysis, an application draft, a compliance calendar, a filing package. Not a PowerPoint. Not a PDF email attachment.
Exportable to PDF, PowerPoint, Google Docs, Notion, or your own system.
Most engagements end with a productized version of the same workflow running in our platform, so your team can continue without us. The rest convert into an ongoing Cliffcenter subscription.
No long-term lock-ins.
Capabilities
For a single candidate site, we deliver a complete regulatory pathway analysis — zoning, environmental, interconnection, incentives, timeline to first megawatt, upgrade cost envelope, and a stakeholder map. Usually in 10 working days.
For an active project or a candidate POI list, we deliver a queue position memo, an upstream upgrade forecast, and a realistic COD distribution. Ships with the underlying data in your Queue Intelligence workspace.
For jurisdictions running their first large data center permit, we build the playbook — which commissions to brief, which ordinances to reference, which state-level programs to invoke, and which local grassroots groups to engage before they mobilize.
For a specific project, we model every eligible incentive program, rank by NPV and compliance burden, and prepare the filings end-to-end. You sign; we file; we track the compliance calendar.
We work alongside your counsel on FERC, state PUC, and NRC filings. Our regulatory graph keeps you ahead of the PJM rulemaking; our deal room keeps the workstreams synchronized.
Monthly or ad-hoc briefings on the regulatory landscape — FERC orders, state rulemaking, federal legislation, ISO tariff changes. Delivered as a structured artifact, not a slide deck.
142 grassroots advocacy groups across 24 states are actively blocking data center projects. We build the engagement playbook, produce the fact sheets, and keep the community stakeholder map current.
Every engagement can close with a board-ready memo or an IC deck packaged in your own house style. Our analysts have shipped for family offices, infrastructure funds, and Fortune 100 operators.
“Modern data center development requires integrating legal, finance, tax, regulatory, economic development, real estate, risk management, technology, and human resources.”
Built for
If you are about to spend $500K on a CBRE diligence engagement or a Baker Botts regulatory memo, we offer an alternative. Half the price. Twice the speed. Source artifacts you can keep and re-use.
Early partners who want to shape the platform. We embed for 30–90 days, deliver the current workflow manually, and productize together. In exchange, you anchor our case studies and get preferred pricing on the eventual platform.
You have one data center to build. You cannot justify a full subscription to five solutions. You need the work done this quarter. We staff the engagement and hand off the artifacts.
For a live transaction, you need a diligence team that can read the regulatory graph as well as any law firm. We ship that team on short notice, and at flat-fee pricing.
Pricing
We publish the price of a site memo and a full predevelopment engagement because hourly billing creates the wrong incentives. If we finish faster, we do not refund your money — we take on the next engagement with the time we saved.
A single candidate site, full regulatory pathway analysis, delivered in 10 working days.
End-to-end predevelopment for a single project, including all filings, through ISA and break ground.
30–90 day embed with your team. We run the predevelopment workflow alongside you and hand off a productized version.
Questions
It is a delivery mechanism. Consulting is the label the industry uses for what we do, but we deliver via our own software and hand off reusable artifacts instead of PowerPoint and PDF. The economics look like consulting; the operating model looks like product.
You probably should hire one of them for parts of the work — they have relationships and domain depth we do not. Our wedge is the work those firms will not staff at your price point, or the work where you need source artifacts instead of slide decks. Most of our customers use us alongside one of the big firms.
Every engagement produces structured artifacts in our platform. When your team takes over, they inherit a working Cliffcenter workspace. When the next customer hires us for the same type of engagement, we reuse 40–60% of the work. The platform gets sharper with every delivery.
Yes. Site memos start at $25K. One-off queue diligence, incentive screens, and permitting playbooks are available as fixed-scope engagements. No retainers, no minimums.
A mix of former energy law associates, interconnection engineers, economic development professionals, and AI/ML engineers. The firm is small and intentionally so — we optimize for domain depth per engagement, not headcount.
Some of it. Site memos, incentive screens, and queue diligence can be mostly software in 18 months. BTM deal structuring, community engagement, and permitting strategy will always have a human-intensive component. We will keep that part as a service offering even after the platform matures.
Related
Predevelopment Services
Send us a one-paragraph project brief. We reply within a day with a scoped engagement, a fixed price, and a start date.