If there’s one topic that can compel multiple people to shout an expletive into a microphone in a church sanctuary, it’s data centers.
Company executives from Atlanta-based DC BLOX, the latest developer looking to build a data center campus in Indianapolis, made their pitch on April 27 at Downey Avenue Christian Church in Irvington, the east-side neighborhood near which three proposed facilities would sit. The sanctuary was packed with close to 200 people, including residents who came to speak vehemently against the idea, union laborers who showed up to support it and many more who came to listen.
“It’s not popular to be in the data center business right now. It’s really popular to go online, on social media especially, and hate on data centers,” DC BLOX Senior Vice President of Sales David Armistead said to the room before public comment. “But what I will tell you is not all data centers are the same, and not all data center companies are the same. And if there’s a data center that was irresponsible and they’re getting a lot of hate, then that’s well-deserved.”
Armistead’s remarks did little to comfort residents who criticized the plan for several reasons, among them: the company’s intention to seek tax breaks; the air and noise pollution more than three dozen backup diesel generators could cause; and the data centers’ proposed location just south of Irvington Community Elementary School.
“I think you should pay your fair share of taxes, just like every small business in the community pays taxes from the day they open their door,” William Moser, an east-side resident, told the company leaders.
While most kept their comments civil, one woman told the DC BLOX representatives that “every single one of you are disgusting.”
Before the meeting, the company decided to postpone its May hearing before the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing examiner to take more time to gather feedback. The use variance request required for the data center — which needs final approval by the full MDC but not the Indianapolis City-County Council — is now set for an initial hearing June 11.
What to know about DC BLOX data center
DC BLOX wants to build a data center campus with three buildings encompassing more than 400,000 square feet in an industrial park just east of Irvington, at 305 Fintail Drive. The company aims to complete the initial facility, the smallest at 80,000 square feet, within two years of city approval and the two larger buildings by 2030.
All told, Armistead said, the three facilities would cost upward of $2 billion to build and use close to 80 megawatts of energy — enough to power tens of thousands of homes. DC BLOX says the data center will employ 35 “high-wage” permanent staffers and up to 600 construction workers during the buildout.
The buildings would sit on part of a 150-acre site where a longstanding Ford automotive parts factory operated until 2007. After the plant was demolished, the site rebranded as the Thunderbird Commerce Center in 2021 to attract logistics and manufacturing firms.
The site’s anchor business is beverage retailer and distributor Monarch Distributing, which moved into a roughly 500,000-square-foot facility in 2024. The data center buildings would be just north of where Monarch sits, closer to the Pennsy Trail.
How DC BLOX deals with energy, pollution concerns
The company’s proposal aims to mitigate some of the common fears about data centers, particularly related to energy use.
For one, the facilities won’t initially be used to power artificial intelligence, the force driving much of the data center boom. DC BLOX says it will house data for regional network communications and local clients like banks, hospitals, universities and governments.
What’s more, the first building will cool computer equipment with a waterless system similar to those big-box stores use. The next two facilities would use a closed-loop system, a less water-intensive method that will pull water only from municipal provider Citizens Energy Group — not from natural aquifers.
In case of rare emergencies or mechanical issues, the company says it will dispose of leaking water in line with state regulations and not flush it into the city’s wastewater system.
DC BLOX also says it will pay for all costs associated with a new electricity substation that could be needed to power the three facilities. The company cites an AES Indiana statement that promises new data centers will cause “no negative impact to existing customer rates” because AES will be able to spread out new infrastructure costs over a larger amount of electricity sold.
Armistead said Monday night that although DC BLOX would not be legally bound by proposed city regulations on data centers that could take effect this summer, the company plans to adhere to most of them anyways. DC BLOX also won’t sign non-disclosure agreements as part of its negotiations, representatives said.
“I see this as a way to extend technology into an area where it hasn’t existed before,” Armistead said, “to allow the community to participate in this high, high- growth sector of our U.S. economy.”
The company says it aims to host another community forum in City-County Council District 20, where the data center is technically located, in the coming weeks. Irvington sits just to the west in District 14.
District 20 Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, whose opposition helped to kill a Google data center in his district last fall, told IndyStar in an April 22 phone interview he remains “neutral” on the DC BLOX proposal.
He said residents should “take the time to show up and make sure that they’re getting all questions asked and answered.”
“Anything we want in a commitment is still completely plausible, because it still takes a vote, and that’s from the MDC,” Hart said. “So if there are valid points that need to be made, there are still members of that body who are going to listen and can approve these things. And that’s where the convincing has to happen.”
Email Indianapolis City Hall Reporter Jordan Smith at JTSmith@indystar.com. Follow him on X @jordantsmith09 and Bluesky @jordanaccidentally.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: East Indy data center faces resident backlash as plan is delayed
Reporting by Jordan Smith, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
