Officials celebrate collaboration to bring Amazon data center to Indiana
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Gov. Eric Holcomb says the ability to attract major investment to Indiana such as the $11 billion Amazon Web Services data center campus in New Carlisle is the result of a strategic, collaborative approach.
The governor, along with Indiana Secretary of Commerce David Rosenberg, took part in a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday with executives from AWS and local leaders to celebrate the major project at the Indiana Enterprise Center.
The project represents the largest capital investment in Indiana history and is expected to create at least 1,000 jobs in the St. Joseph County town.
Holcomb told Inside INdiana Business reporter Eniola Longe that working together at the federal, state and local levels was key to securing the project, which has been years in the making.
“When good, growing communities and states partner with good, growing industries and companies like AWS, good things tend to happen,” Holcomb said. “So it will be incumbent upon the county commissioners, the county council, the legislature, the next governor to make sure that we have an attractive place that’s competitive…so companies have the confidence that they’re going to be able to grow at the scale and pace that, by the way, national security calls for.”
The data center campus will feature 16 data center “shells,” each of which will be about 200,000 square feet, and sit on an 870-acre property. Eight support buildings are also planned for the campus.
Crews officially began construction several weeks ago, and officials estimate the first four buildings are to set for completion by the end of this year with more being added over the next 10-15 years.
Kevin Miller, vice president of global data centers for AWS, said the company was attracted to Indiana for multiple reasons.
“It’s a combination of where we have power and land available, but it’s also about communities that are really interested in having this kind of development and the local workforce and partners like Ivy Tech that can help train that workforce,” said Miller. So really, all of those factors came together to make this a good opportunity for us.”
The governor said having major projects like this come to fruition is critical to helping Indiana be at the forefront of talent attraction and create generational impact for communities.
While Indiana continues to grow at a faster rate than any of its neighboring states, Holcomb said, it’s still not enough.
“You’ve got to be part of the new economy,” he said. “Some cool jobs are very attractive, and to have the universities and the colleges and the K-12 system that are providing experiences for students to figure out what they want to do, where they could fit in at an AWS or a General Motors, Samsung SDI or the jobs of the future, those are magnets. Those are magnets for population growth.”
Last month, The St. Joseph County Redevelopment Commission, St. Joseph County Commissioners, and St. Joseph County Council approved an incentive package that would provide a net savings of about $1.9 billion for the company.
The council also approved an economic development agreement for the project, which included a “community enhancement agreement” designed to provide benefits to the local area.
The AWS project is one in a series of data centers being planned throughout Indiana, including Microsoft, which is planning two data centers in Granger and La Porte.
Google broke ground earlier this year on a $2 billion data center in Fort Wayne, while Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is investing $800 million for a data center in Jeffersonville.
One of the primary concerns that continues to be brought up by residents regarding these types of projects is the impact they will have on utilities, particularly electricity and water capacity.
Miller said water used by existing AWS data centers has been historically low.
“Between October and March, we don’t use any water to cool facilities; it’s all air cooled,” he said. “We just bring fresh air in because it’s cool enough, given the climate. It’s cool enough just to use the outside air.”
As for power, Miller said the company is working with local utilities to make sure there is enough power available for the data center, and they’re also exploring renewable energy options.
During a meeting of the St. Joseph County Council in August, Indiana Michigan Power Community Affairs Manager Mona Livingston reiterated that local electric ratepayers will not be on the hook for any additional power usage caused by the data center project.
“We currently have the capacity to serve all our existing customers, industrial customers, residential customers, and we are treating this separately,” Livingston said. “We will definitely be making significant enhancements to the transmission lines to accommodate additional loads, and also working with Amazon to purchase more power.”
The AWS data center campus is being built not far from the planned $3.5 billion General Motors-Samsung SDI electric vehicle battery plant, which officials said in August is now set to open in 2027, a year later than originally planned.
Jeff Rea, CEO of the South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce, said while the project is not running on the same time frame as initially thought, it’s still on track for construction to begin in earnest in 2025.