Plans progressing for Microsoft’s northern Indiana data centers
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While construction has yet to begin, planning is continuing to move forward for Microsoft’s planned data centers in St. Joseph County and La Porte, according to our partners at WSBT-TV.
The tech giant announced plans for the projects last summer, but county officials say they expect both to progress this year.
Microsoft said in June that it was investing $1 billion to build a new, 245,000-square-foot data center in the Radius Industrial Park in La Porte. The effort is expected to create up to 200 jobs by the end of 2032.
The company aims to use the facility to accelerate its Microsoft Cloud infrastructure to support growth in technology and artificial intelligence, Gov. Eric Holcomb’s said in a news release at the time.
Bert Cook, La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership Director, told WSBT that the project is in the “entitlement” phase.
“Which is working through all of the permitting and reconstruction initiatives that need to occur in order for them to begin construction either later this year or early next,” Cook said.
Also in June, Microsoft acquired nearly 930 acres of farmland from St. Joe Farm in Granger for $77.5 million, according to documents from the St. Joseph County recorder. The company is planning a new data center at the site.
Bill Schalliol, director of economic development for St. Joseph County, told WSBT that the county is working on final details for the projects, including exactly how many buildings there would be and where they would be located, along with a traffic study that would outline possible road improvements.
“Over the last couple of months they’ve done a lot of work on site trying to understand soil conditions and traffic and utility demands, things like that,” Schalliol said. “So, I think we’ll probably spend a lot of the winter season working with their team on those issues. And then probably after, I would guess, April, May, June, we’ll start to see some pieces of the project announced as far as what the site will look like, where improvements may need to happen, things like that.”
It was not clear however, when dirt would actually begin to be moved to start construction.