Developer Pitches 400-Acre Indianapolis Data Center Campus
A developer has proposed a 391-acre data center campus near Indianapolis, the latest in a string of such projects to launch in Indiana over the last year as the Hoosier State becomes a favored market for the world’s largest tech companies.
Economic development officials in Morgan County have filed rezoning requests on behalf of the unnamed developer and potential end user of the site, located between Indianapolis and Bloomington in Morgan Township, Inside Indiana Business first reported.
Plans for the site show five initial buildings, although the rezoning application describes “the development of a large industrial campus with a variety of uses with flexibility to grow as the market may dictate.”
A transmission line from utility AES Indiana runs directly through the site, an assemblage of 18 parcels with 10 separate owners. The developer reportedly has purchase options on all the parcels should the project come to fruition.
Initial zoning changes needed for the project will go before the Morgan County Plan Commission next week.
Indiana has emerged as a fast-growing data center development hub over the past 24 months. Much of this growth has occurred in the northwest part of the state, largely due to development constraints in nearby Chicago. But hyperscalers are also pursuing campuses near Indianapolis in the central part of the state, which sits between Chicago and Columbus, Ohio — a critical emerging digital infrastructure hub for Big Tech.
The four largest tech giants — Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta — have all announced large-scale data center plans in the state since the start of 2024, a combined investment that could total more than $25B.
In November, Meta announced a 1,500-acre data center development northwest of Indianapolis in the city of Lebanon. Months earlier, the social media giant unveiled a separate, 619-acre data center project in Jeffersonville, on the state’s southern border.
Google acquired 900 acres in Fort Wayne for a data center campus last January with plans for a $2B build-out, while Amazon Web Services announced an $11B data center campus midway between South Bend and Chicago in the town of New Carlisle last spring.
Microsoft launched two data center projects in the same region in June. The company plans to build a billion-dollar campus on 489 acres in La Porte and subsequently acquired a 939-acre site in Mishawaka.
Major digital infrastructure investors are also betting on data center growth in the state. In January, KKR and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board acquired a 19.9% stake in utility giant AEP’s Indiana power transmission company, a deal spurred largely by power demand growth from data centers.
