Digital Realty Picks Kokomo for 1GW Campus, Its First in Indiana

Digital Realty wants to build its first Indiana data centers in Kokomo, proposing a three-building campus with roughly 1GW of IT capacity on 476 acres of greenfield land. The global REIT published a project page for the development after city officials confirmed its interest earlier this month, with full buildout targeted for 2033, DCDHigh-resolution exterior photograph of a large-scale Digital Realty Midwest data center campus facility. reported. The cost is estimated at $1 billion to $3 billion, and the city is offering no tax breaks.

The project

The campus would rise at Industrial Park North, near U.S. 31 and County Road 400 North in the Howard County seat, about 50 miles north of Indianapolis. Plans call for three single-story buildings totaling about three million square feet (278,710 sqm), built over four to six years, WRTV reported.

Mayor Tyler Moore used his State of the City address to project up to $55 million in annual property tax revenue, the Kokomo Tribune reported.

Power and water

At full build the campus would draw about 1.5GW of power, enough for roughly 1.1 million homes, Matt Gully, a Digital Realty representative, told WRTV. Cooling would rely on a closed-loop, air-cooled system that recirculates water; city officials say the facility would use less water annually than local hospitals, schools, manufacturers, or golf courses. Digital Realty says it will fund any power and water infrastructure upgrades the project requires.

"We're not asking ratepayers to carry that," Gully said. Duke Energy, the local utility, said it is still working through required agreements.

Consumer advocates are not reassured. "No statutory protections are in place to ensure Hoosier ratepayers won't foot the bill," said Ben Inskeep, program director at the Citizens Action Coalition, which is urging a statewide data center moratorium. Indiana American Water, by contrast, said its system already has enough capacity to serve the site.

The local bargain

Kokomo cleared the path September 14, when the Common Council voted 7 to 1 to let data centers on all industrial sites. Digital Realty says it is not seeking any incentives either.

Some neighbors remain unconvinced, telling Fox 59 the campus is slotted for their front yards, and an October 10 open house drew questions focused on noise and utility use, according to Gully. Supporters point to a projected $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion in new taxable value. The process is far from settled: no full site plan has been filed, and the Common Council must still approve an economic development agreement that Gully said should be drafted in the coming weeks.

Market context

Digital Realty operates about 360 data centers globally but none in Indiana. The Kokomo pitch extends a gigawatt-scale land grab: the REIT told investors this year that an Atlanta-area purchase should support more than 1GW of IT capacity.

Indiana has become one of the country's fastest-growing data center markets. Baxtel tracks 146 facilities in the state, run by 46 providers and led by Amazon AWS with 33 sites and Google with six; the largest single site is Google's 100MW Zodiac 1. Tracked power capacity statewide has grown more than 4,600 percent since 2022, and the Indianapolis metro accounts for 43 facilities.

The REIT is building abroad as well, starting construction this month on the 24MW KIX15 in Osaka and topping out a second Seoul data center.

Why it matters

Kokomo is the emerging test case for the next phase of American data center development: a city of about 60,000 landing gigawatt-scale investment with no tax abatements and a public pledge that the developer, not ratepayers, funds the grid upgrades. If that bargain survives permitting, it hands small Midwestern cities a workable playbook and blunts the moratorium movement's core argument.

If the pledge breaks, Kokomo becomes Exhibit A for Indiana's moratorium camp. Either way, the front line has moved to small-city Indiana.

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