 is proposing a three-building data center campus on about 476 acres at Industrial Park North in Kokomo, Indiana, with a site...](https://cdn.baxtel.com/data-center/digital-realty-proposes-1gw-data-center-campus-in-kokomo-indiana/logo/digital-realty-proposes-1gw-data-center-campus-in-kokomo-indiana-featured.jpg){kind=logo}
Digital Realty is proposing a three-building data center campus on about 476 acres at Industrial Park North in Kokomo, Indiana, with a site plan that calls for roughly 1GW of IT capacity and completion in 2033. The company published the details on its Kokomo project page, and Kokomo Mayor T
Wide shot of a modern Digital Realty multi-building digital park campus facility.yler Moore announced the project during his State of the City address.
The land sits near U.S. 31 and County Road 400 North, about 50 miles north of Indianapolis, in an industrial park the city has been marketing to large industrial users. Three one-story buildings would total about 3 million square feet, and the company expects four to six years of construction. Cost estimates vary. WISH-TV reported a range of $1 billion to $3 billion, while Moore told Inside INdiana Business the investment would land between $1.4 billion and $1.7 billion. The city projects $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion in taxable assessed value once the campus is finished, generating $44 million to $55 million a year in property tax revenue.
Power is the crux. The site plan lists about 1GW of IT capacity, but Matt Gully, a Digital Realty representative, told WISH-TV the completed campus would draw about 1.5GW, enough to serve roughly 1.1 million homes. Duke Energy would supply the electricity, and a utility spokesperson told WISH-TV that agreements governing the connection are still being worked through. Cooling would use a closed-loop, air-cooled system that recirculates water instead of drawing it continuously. Indiana American Water says its network has capacity for the site, and Digital Realty has committed to funding water infrastructure upgrades. "We're not asking ratepayers to carry that," Gully said.
Kokomo set its terms before the proposal arrived. On Sept. 14, the Common Council approved zoning that permits data centers on all industrial sites, a change that passed 7-1 after contentious public hearings, WRTV reported. The property does not need zoning approval, but the council must approve any economic development agreement between the city and the company. Digital Realty is not seeking a tax abatement, and Gully said an agreement could be drafted within weeks.
Residents near the site are not persuaded. The company held an open house on Oct. 10 that focused on noise and utility use, and the project must hold sustained noise to 50 decibels at the property line. Ben Inskeep, program director at the Citizens Action Coalition, argues the commitments are voluntary. "No statutory protections are in place to ensure Hoosier ratepayers won't foot the bill," he said.
Indiana's existing data center base is modest next to the load now proposed. Baxtel tracks 146 data center facilities in Indiana, led by Amazon Web Services with 33 sites; the largest is Google's Zodiac 1 campus at 100MW.
Digital Realty operates more than 300 data centers worldwide and is pursuing several greenfield campuses, including one at the former Fort Gillem Army base in Georgia and a 1,440-acre site at Astra Enterprise Park near Kansas City. Kokomo would be its entry into Indiana, a state where Amazon Web Services and Google have done the heavy building so far.
A gigawatt campus has never been built in Indiana, and the terms Digital Realty accepts here, on infrastructure cost, noise, and water, will become the baseline every developer after it is asked to match. The economic development agreement, still unwritten, is where that baseline gets set.
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