PERRY TWP. – The data center at Faircrest Street SW and Kropf Avenue SW is expected to be 240 megawatts and the largest single taxpayer in Stark County, even with a planned tax break.
Adam Kramer, head of data centers for Panattoni Development Co., said the facility will support a single client but declined to share the specific user before an open house on April 15 at Perry High School.
“All data centers have the same purpose, which is to help run the internet,” Kramer said. “So, there’s not one type of data center over another, a data center is a data center, and this will be to support our client and their work.”
Richard Regula, president of the Board of Stark County commissioners, and Canton Mayor William V. Sherer II recently confirmed to The Canton Repository that it will be an Amazon facility.
Panattoni Development Co., a California-based real estate development company, and the general contractor, Clayco, a Chicago-based design and building contractor, built the Amazon warehouse in Canton.
Most definitions of “hyperscale” data centers are 100 MW or more. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.
Kramer said 670 trade workers are expected to be involved in construction. The total investment and anticipated number of permanent jobs were not immediately available. He said internet use — including but not limited to artificial intelligence — is driving data center growth, but the centers have existed for decades.
“Honestly, this is really exciting, and that’s the whole point of this open house,” he said. “There’s a lot of misconception about data centers.”
Residents question Perry data center
Several people held anti-data center signs at the high school while others collected signatures at the door for a ballot initiative that would put a ban on large data centers in Ohio up for vote.
Dawn and Earl Baker, who live on Trump Avenue, not far from another prospective data center site, left the open house dissatisfied. Dawn said the answer to all her questions, such as how their electric rates will be affected, was “I don’t know.”
Earl Baker said he was told the noise level would be minimal and received answers to some of his other questions, but he has also read conflicting information online.
“I don’t trust them,” he said of company representatives at the open house.
Gina Risher, who lives on Faircrest Street SW, said she was adamantly against the data center — primarily because she feels it was a “done deal” from the start, with little transparency. She said reassurances about property values not being affected and other matters don’t mean anything unless it’s in writing.
Perry Township resident Brett Acierno said he lives within a mile of the development and attended the open house to learn more information. He said none of the information was new to him, and he is in favor of moratoriums to allow more time to research potential environmental effects.
“I felt that the presentation was kind of one-sided in favor of data centers,” Acierno said.
What’s the data center plan?
The site plan involves two 220,000-square-foot buildings and two 154,000-square-foot buildings. An AEP substation and above-ground water tanks will also be on the nearly 105 acres.
Panattoni Development Co. purchased the property for $1.78 million in February 2025 and began clearing trees. The developer sold it in March of this year for $10.4 million to Hall of Fame Owner LLC, a Delaware-based company created in late January.
The data center site is in a Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) — where the income tax rate is 2.5% with Canton receiving 2% and Perry Township receiving 0.5%.
Perry Township trustees approved a 30-year, 75% property tax abatement in March for the project. Under the agreement, which has yet to be approved by Canton City Council and Stark County commissioners, the township would receive $2.75 million upfront in exchange for receiving 25% of the expected property tax revenue over three decades.
“Even at a 75% tax abatement, they would still be the largest single property taxpayer in Stark County history,” Regula said.
The exact revenue will depend on the property’s future valuation, but he said the data center is expected to bring in “millions of dollars” that will help alleviate the burden on local taxpayers.
Regula said he understands that residents have concerns about water and electricity, but the city of Canton has the capacity to supply water and the area is part of a multi-state power grid.
“So if that site’s built in Stark County or is built in Cuyahoga County or is built in Pennsylvania, everybody’s electrical rates are going to be impacted one way or another,” he added.
Trade groups show support
The East Central Ohio Building & Construction Trades Council, which represents more than 8,000 trade workers in Stark and surrounding counties, had representatives at the open house and recently made a presentation to Canton City Council about data centers.
President Brett McElfresh said data centers are not new to Ohio and house critical infrastructure, such as computer servers that operate cloud storage, databases and other technology. That technology is used daily by health care and financial systems as well as the public.
“These types of projects are very important,” McElfresh said.
The data center in Perry Township will employ more than 1,000 local tradeworkers over a four to six-year construction period, said Erik Hann, vice president of the trades council and business manager of IBEW Local 540. Tradeworkers will also be involved in any subsequent maintenance or upgrades.
“Even after they’re done, we never leave,” he said.
James Leonard, vice president of field operations for the Canton-based Hilscher-Clarke Electric Co., said there already are 160 Hilscher-Clarke electricians working to prepare data centers in Ohio and beyond.
“So it’s producing local jobs already,” he said.
Even if Ohio voters put a stop to data center construction, Leonard said, they will continue to be built out of state or out of the country. However, he would prefer the region to reap the economic benefits.
“We have the opportunity to corner the market now,” Leonard said.
Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323 or kelly.byer@cantonrep.com
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Open house for Perry Township data center sheds light on incoming user
Reporting by Kelly Byer, Canton Repository / The Repository
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