There’s been letters and petitions aplenty on the potential data center near Leesburg and Clunette over the last several weeks.
While many are against it, some have questions about how it will affect the water, agriculture, roads and more in the community.
Prologis, the company behind the potential data center near Leesburg and Clunette, provided some information Friday on their plans.
Prologis is a “deeply experienced real estate company that operates in several markets in the Midwest, including Indianapolis and Chicago,” according to the information they provided. They have been building data centers since 1999.
The Kosciusko County site was selected because of its access to existing energy infrastructure. With this location, the data center can be constructed and operated without service disruption to residents or impact to their utility bills, according to Prologis. Additionally, no significant utility upgrades will be required for service.
The current site plan includes 10 powered shell data centers designed to support 72 MW per building, totaling approximately 1.9 million square feet.
Since it is very early for the project, Prologis has not yet identified a tenant. They will work with the world’s leading hyperscalers and tech innovators that have strong financial stability and are recognized for operational excellence, they say.
Due to the lack of water service in proximity, Prologis plans to design the facilities to use a closed-loop water cooling system, which requires less water than what other data center projects might need. Once the data center project is fully built out, it will require an estimated total of 38,000 to 40,000 gallons per day, which is lower than data center projects that use open-loop systems, according to the company.
“We have had good conversations with Kosciusko Rural Electric Membership Corporation (KREMC). They are in support of this project as our project investments will allow them to improve the community’s local energy infrastructure,” Prologis states.
Asked about Kosciusko REMC’s support of the project, KREMC Director of Business Development Dalton Caley responded, “We support additional electric load onto our lines. Additional electric loads present an opportunity to benefit our membership by spreading costs more efficiently.”
The data center will be in KREMC’s territory, so KREMC will be the power provider to it.
“We will work through all processes to ensure a positive impact on our membership,” Caley said.
As for the data center’s electrical needs having any impact on the surrounding communities’ electrical needs, Caley said, “The MISO grid is much more complex than if it goes in our county versus a neighboring county. The impact on the grid will be the same and will not prevent our other members from their growing electric needs.”
He said the data center will give KREMC the opportunity to fortify their lowest residential rates in the state, add system redundancy, increase system reliability and increase their support of the local community.
“Adding a data center will not cause higher electric rates or reliability issues,” Caley stated. “All in all, adding this project to our lines will strengthen REMC for decades with a long-term partner like this.”
As for other infrastructure, Prologis states, “We have deep experience working with local officials on infrastructure improvements needed on or near our projects. We are already in talks with the county about the necessary road infrastructure improvements to support the development.”
And on economic benefits for the county, Prologis states they have talked with local leaders about the importance of industry diversity in the county in terms of land use and county revenue drivers.
“This project represents an opportunity to bring new revenues to the community to help fund public services, like schools, law enforcement, fire services, infrastructure and more,” they say. “Data centers create good jobs, both in construction and operation. Based on the current design - 300 total full-time jobs are estimated once the project is complete, with an average annual salary of $100,000.”
The project will create about 150 to 175 construction jobs per building, with one to two buildings constructed sequentially at a time. If two buildings are built each year, this would result in about 325 daily construction jobs annually over the next seven to 10 years, according to Prologis.
Once fully constructed and operational - projected by Prologis to be in 2039 - the development is expected to generate around $18.7 million in annual tax revenue for the county, increasing each year moving forward and reaching about $35.8 million by 2048.
People will have the opportunity to voice their thoughts on the rezoning request at 1 p.m. Wednesday in the old courtroom of the county courthouse in Warsaw when the Kosciusko County Area Plan Commission will meet. The commission will decide on a recommendation for or against the petition to rezone 554 acres from agriculture to industrial-3 for the potential data center. The owners of the property are Tim Polk, Polk Family Farms and Murphy Place LLC.
The capacity of the courtroom is limited to 120 people by the fire marshal, but Area Plan plans to livestream the meeting on the county’s YouTube channel.
Any recommendation from the Area Plan Commission will be sent on to the Kosciusko County Commissioners for their final approval on the rezoning request.