A new data center could be coming to Daviess County in southern Indiana.
At the Washington City Council meeting Monday evening, Columbus, Ohio-based developer Outrigger Industrial presented preliminary plans for a data center located at the southeast corner of I-69 and US 50.
Adam Niemeyer, a representative of the company, said the data center could have 100 to 150 employees on the 120-acre facility.
“Not maybe as many jobs as a manufacturing facility with 500 people, but they are well-paying jobs, a lot of electricians, HVAC, security guards, technology type folks,” he said.
Outrigger projects the site to generate $70 million in tax revenue over a 10-year period.
As developers, Outrigger is attempting to build the site to suit an “end user,” such as hyper-scalers Google, Meta, or Amazon, but also potentially hospitals or financial institutions to store data. Those companies won’t buy in until the site checks all their boxes of needs, including power, water, and zoning.
Steve Rowley, co-founder of Outrigger Industrial, said the site checks all but two of those boxes: updated ordinances and a guarantee that the city’s water and sewer will serve the data center.
“We do need kind of a will-serve letter,” he said. “So the end user wants to know, ‘are we going to be able to have water? Are we going to be able to have access to a sewer?’”
The developers estimated the buildings will cost $100 to $250 million, with internal equipment costs reaching $500 million to $1 billion. They also estimated it to require 250 to 500 megawatts of power. It is unclear how much water the site would require.
The next steps involve engaging with the planning commission and getting agreements from utility providers.
