LAPORTE — Microsoft has revealed plans for a second data center on 1,200 acres of farmland beside the data center the technology giant has just started building in LaPorte.
The future expansion hinges on the city council approving a request from the landowners to annex the property so it can be sold to Microsoft for the development.
After a heavily attended public hearing Monday night, the council decided to take a vote on the annexation request at its May 18 meeting.
Councilman Tim Franke said the city will likely never be in such a favorable position again given the tens of millions of dollars already projected to be received in property tax revenue annually under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft on the first data center.
Several million dollars a year are also projected for the school corporation from the initial agreement.
How much additional money would come from the proposed expansion was not disclosed, but Franke said the amount pledged from the first data center is already a life-changing amount for the community.
“I strongly believe that we will never have an opportunity in front of us like this again,” he said.
LaPorte County government, left out of the revenue sharing in the first agreement, will share in the funding from the expansion under an agreement with the city being finalized.
Mayor Tom Dermody urged council members to give their support.
“Let’s continue the momentum we have and say yes,” he said.
The data center now going up is on close to 500 acres of what used to be farmland along Boyd Boulevard, just east of U.S. 35.
Mike Stockwell, a land development and permitting program manager for Microsoft, said six data center buildings are planned for that site, while 11 more data center facilities would go on the other parcel if everything goes as planned.
“All of this is subject to change as we get into detail design,” he said.
Stockwell said tree clearing and other ground work is occurring at the first data center site, with building construction to begin in the fall.
According to Microsoft, the data centers will recycle water brought in on trucks through a closed loop system to cool the servers.
At some point, the water will be hauled away for proper disposal and replaced with more water hauled to the site, according to the company.
The only municipal water to be consumed will reportedly be for things like restrooms and making coffee for the employees.
The cost of meeting the large demand for energy to operate the data centers will not be passed on to existing customers, NIPSCO Director of Public Affairs and Economic Development Rick Kalinski said.
Instead, Kalinski said, Microsoft will bear the entire expense of meeting their energy needs.
“There is no cost shifting. No hidden burdens on current customers,” he said. “The businesses that drive the energy demand pay for it.”
According to Microsoft, noise levels from diesel-powered generators running about 15 hours a year will also be minimal. The generators are backups in case of power outages, but they must run for short bursts every week, adding up to the 15-hour annual total.
Bert Cook, Executive Director of the LaPorte Economic Advancement Partnership, compared the noise at the property lines to that of a “household refrigerator.”
Cook estimated 200 good-paying, high-tech positions will come to the first data center, with expansion meaning up to 50 more employees per building.
There will also be “thousands” of union workers at the site for the duration of the construction expected to take five to seven years to complete, he said.
“I feel like the impact of that cannot be overlooked,” he said.
A majority of the people in the audience were supporters, like LaPorte Schools Superintendent Dr. Sandra Wood, who felt the new jobs from the data centers can reverse more than a decade of gradual student enrollment declines.
“We have seen students and families leave our community in search of opportunities that simply did not exist here,” she said. “This project represents the first real opportunity to shift that trajectory.”
Resident James Baum spoke against the plan, calling the project unwelcome urban sprawl in what’s still an unincorporated area unless the city annexes.
“You’re taking country land,” he said. Country “people. They have dreams there. It’s not fair.”
Public hearing
Microsoft announced a public open house of the project will be held April 21 at the Civic Auditorium from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Additional, larger Microsoft data center in LaPorte draws support
Reporting by Stan Maddux, Special to The Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
