Developer pulls petition that proposed Frankfort data center
FRANKFORT, IN — The city’s plan commission meeting Wednesday night in which the only new business was to hear a rezoning request that would help usher in a data center has been canceled after the petition was withdrawn, according to the updated agenda late Tuesday afternoon.
The proposed rezone of about 833 acres of land in Clinton County, if the petition is revived, could bring a data center to the city of Frankfort.
Logistix, a land development company that specializes in the buildouts of data centers, filed a petition with Frankfort’s City Plan Commission on July 3 to have several parcels of land rezoned just north of Indiana 28, between West County Road 0 N/S and West County Road 100 North, bordering North County Road 300 West.
The rezone would see property zoned within the county brought into city limits, moving from A1 agriculture to general business, alongside a portion of acreage currently zoned I-1 for light industrial use.
Reacting to negative reactions with a statement earlier Tuesday afternoon, Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets pointed out the proposed development is in a county-controlled TIF district and not within the city’s jurisdiction. But if the developer petitions for the city to annex it, then the city’s common council would be able to vote on that.
If the city’s plan commission were to recommend the rezoning, “it would be contingent upon the property being annexed, or that decision would have no effect,” Sheets said in the statement.
Discussions on infrastructure and investment are still a long way off, she said, and will require community input.
“This is not about backroom deals or hidden agendas,” she said. “This is about navigating a complex process with transparency, responsibility and community at the center.”
If the petition is resubmitted, the planned data center would include multiple individual data center buildings, Logistix said in the rezone application, which would be built and completed with interior racking, mechanical systems and IT hardware over the course of several years. The buildings’ total square footage would amount to more than 7 million square feet of property development.
The data center, the company said on its website, would operate at more than 300 megawatts.
If completed, the data center would represent more than $10 billion in total investment, the rezone application said, through the combination of real and personal property. The new development was proposing to create up to 350 permanent jobs and more than 1,000 temporary jobs.
“Based upon our discussion with users to date, the project will likely be occupied by a single data center operator,” Logistix said in the application. “But the project may be divided and occupied by two to four data center operators who could each occupy a small campus.”
The data center project would be supplied by Frankfort Municipal Utilities, the application said, from a yet-to-be-built electrical substation, which would be adjacent to the site on land the developer would contribute to the city of Frankfort. The data center would also be supplied by city water.
“This new electrical infrastructure will support the growth of this project as well as other manufacturing projects within the city,” Logistix said in the application. “The impact to local traffic will be minimal, and we expect a positive impact to surrounding property values.”
The Frankfort site was chosen in part, the company said, because of several influential factors.
“The site has considerable infrastructure to support development of multiple facilities, including readily available power, water and fiber,” Logistix said of the location on its website. “The site is also uniquely situated in a fast-growing technology corridor which includes the Indiana LEAP District and Purdue University providing for a base of skilled labor and business and residential amenities.”
The company said current interest in the site is “strong” and construction could begin by the fall.
Jillian Ellison is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
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