Kraft Group Proposes 900MW, $16B Data Center Campus in Sutton, Massachusetts

Unified Global Packaging Group and its parent, The Kraft Group, have proposed a 10-building data center campus in Sutton, Massachusetts, that would draw roughly 900 megawatts at full build-out and cost more than $16 billion, In-article: Project map of the proposed Unified Parkway data center development site in Sutton.according to a preliminary fiscal and regulatory review delivered to the Select Board on Nov. 9. The board discusses the proposal Tuesday evening.

The proposal

The campus would hold up to 10 data centers of 250,000 square feet each, the memo states, with the first two buildings opening in 2029 and two more following each year through 2033. The developer's estimate puts the full campus at roughly $16.75 billion in 2026 dollars, including about $1 billion of computing equipment, with the first phase at about $3.35 billion. The property, off Boston Road and Providence Road near 67 Unified Parkway, is crossed by major transmission lines, including a 345-kilovolt line running from Millbury to West Farnum.

The developer has told the town it is in discussions with ISO New England, the regional grid operator, to secure the necessary power, and is exploring the use of treated sewage water for cooling, though the memo says details are still being worked out.

Artificial intelligence was not mentioned in conversations about the campus, and no tenant has been named, MassLive reported.

What Sutton stands to gain

Using what the memo calls deliberately conservative values, town staff estimate the first two buildings would pay about $10.4 million a year in property taxes once fully assessed in fiscal 2031, rising to about $27.8 million a year with all 10 buildings in fiscal 2035. Through fiscal 2042 the total reaches about $323 million, plus an estimated $31 million in one-time building permit fees. The town's entire fiscal 2027 tax levy is about $32 million, and the campus is valued at several times the $2.8 billion assessed value of all property in Sutton today.

Because the town raises only what its budget requires, the main effect would be lower tax bills, the memo says, about $2,300 less.

A gated path to approval

Governor Maura Healey's Executive Order 658, signed Sept. 8, bars state permitting agencies from advancing any data center above 25 MW that lacks local approval, requires a community benefits agreement with the host community, and prohibits nondisclosure agreements between state agencies and developers. The memo notes the developer would have to cover its own grid costs and pay into a state Ratepayer Protection Fund if it does not supply its own clean power. Sutton's zoning bylaws do not currently address data centers, so a bylaw amendment and Town Meeting approval would follow any application.

"The proposal is tentative," Cyganiewicz wrote in the memo. "No application has been filed, and important details on power, water, equipment and site impacts are still to come."

More than 30 Massachusetts communities have adopted or are weighing moratoriums or outright bans, MassLive reported. The mood extends beyond the state: voters in 10 states backed data center restrictions in 40 of 41 local ballot measures on Nov. 3, and Granville, Ohio, approved an outright ban with more than 82 percent of the vote.

"We are aware of and share many concerns regarding data centers," Cyganiewicz wrote. "We will work diligently with the developer to address these concerns, require alternative solutions where possible, and establish any necessary mitigation strategies."

The site and its owner

The Unified Parkway property was originally slated for a distribution center for Unified Global Packaging, a custom protective packaging manufacturer, but those plans never moved forward and the company has been trying to repurpose the lot, Cyganiewicz told MassLive. A Kraft Group company has begun site work on a planned 2.4 million-square-foot industrial development across the 448-acre site, Banker & Tradesman reported. The Kraft Group, founded by the owners of the New England Patriots, spans manufacturing, distribution, real estate and sports.

Market context

Few large projects have advanced in the state. Last November, National Development filed plans to redevelop a 148-acre former Intel campus in Hudson into a 950,000-square-foot industrial campus. A Westfield data center proposal lost a bid to extend its permits, WBUR reported, and projects in Jay and Wiscasset, Maine, and Nottingham, New Hampshire, have been shelved.

Baxtel tracks 58 facilities in Massachusetts with 170 MW of capacity, 43 of them in the Boston metro with 162 MW. The largest is Markley: One Summer Street, Boston's carrier hotel, at 30 MW.

Why it matters

Sutton is now the largest live test of that consent regime in New England: a 900 MW campus in a state where the biggest operating data center is 30 MW, decided not by state regulators but by a town that has never zoned for the use. Power is the real gatekeeper, and the ISO New England discussions will say more about this project's future than any tax projection.

First comes the Select Board's Tuesday evening session. Town departments then conduct due diligence, and any terms would be made public before a Town Meeting acts.

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