GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The head of a regional economic development group said he’s hopeful a proposed data center in Lowell moves forward because it will help diversify Kent County’s economy.
“We need AI to be part of our portfolio here,” said Randy Thelen, president and CEO of The Right Place. “So when we talk about data centers it’s not a solution or silver bullet in any way, but it’s another addition to the diversification of our economy.”
Thelen, speaking Thursday at The Right Place’s annual economic outlook event, said the data center would help bolster the region’s tech sector. It would also represent a significant capital investment and generate additional property tax revenue.
“To have a high capital investment, large property-tax enhancement without consuming a lot of labor, I think is going to further our economic diversification efforts,” he said.
The Right Place is working with Franklin Partners, a commercial real estate agency based in Oak Brook, Illinois, to lay the groundwork for the data center. Franklin Partners is in talks with a tenant that wants to build the data center at Covenant Park.
The 237-acre parcel, located at 4687 Alden Nash Ave. SE in Lowell Township, is adjacent to I-96, a major freeway. The name of the company that wants to build the data center hasn’t been released.
Data centers are essentially warehouses of computer hardware for servers, data storage and network equipment that are used to power artificial intelligence and cloud computing. They use significant electricity and water to power and cool their servers and equipment.
Across the state, residents in various communities have been turning out in huge numbers at meetings as developers pitch data center projects.
Lowell residents have raised lots of questions, including how much water and electricity that data center would use, and whether it will impact their utility bills. They’ve also said it feels like the project is being rushed.
Consumers Energy says it’s confident it will be able to meet current and future energy demand from the data center without pushing up residential rates.
The Lowell Township Planning Commission plans to consider a rezoning request for the property on Dec. 8 before the proposal goes before the Township Board on Dec. 15 for a vote.
The name of the company that would own and operate the data center hasn’t been publicly released because Franklin Partners signed a confidentiality agreement with the company, and a property sale has not been finalized.
However, Don Shoemaker, co-founder of Franklin Partners, has said the prospective tenant is “one of the 10 largest U.S.-based companies.”
Local officials said in a statement that the proposed rezoning “is only the first step in what will be a long process of discussion, infrastructure considerations, site plan review and more.”
Speaking Thursday, Thelen said the proposed data center aligns with The Right Place’s goal of bolstering the tech economy in West Michigan.
“Tech has been a big part of our strategy over the last few years,” he said. “We’re seeing some good uptick in terms of employment. We want to see some of that in terms of investment.”
He added that cities such as Columbus, Ohio; Omaha, Nebraska; and northern Virginia have strong concentrations of data centers that have created “a robust tax base that fuels other kind of amenities for the region.”
Local officials have said the project could bring up to $1 billion in investment as it is built over the course of three to five years.
While some residents said they felt left out of the loop, Thelen said he and others involved in the project sought to provide ample time for public discussion.
“We brought it forward very early,” he said. “We could have stuck with a traditional economic development model and tried to hustle it through quietly, and we just felt that the conversation that’s taking place nationally warrants a strong local conversation.”