Google’s decision to withdraw its application for a $1 billion data center represents an early defeat for Mayor Joe Hogsett’s new economic development organization.
That organization, Indianapolis Economic Development Inc., is a nonprofit established by the Hogsett administration this year. His top aide has described its primary goals as job creation and retention.
Some residents, though, say they are concerned that the Hogsett administration has been placing the interests of Google over their own.
Brittany York, a member of the Protect Franklin Township group that organized grassroots opposition to the data center, told Mirror Indy that the Hogsett administration’s recommendation to provide millions in tax abatements and financial incentives to a multi-trillion dollar company shows that IEDI isn’t listening to the community.
“If their whole point is development,” York said, “why don’t they go out and get something that’s going to benefit us? Why does it have to be an industrial park or a data center? There are other options out there that are not even in the discussion.”
It’s now unclear whether Google plans to move forward as it faces an uphill battle with the City-County Council. The tech giant has proposed up to four facilities to hold computer servers that would support the internet’s infrastructure and drive advancements in artificial intelligence. But first, Google would need the council to approve its petition to rezone 468 acres of farmland.
16 Indy councilors oppose Google’s data center. Is the proposal dead?
Three more Democrats have said they oppose the data center ahead of a key vote.
Indy Democrats now control the fate of the southside Google data center
So far, 13 councilors have opposed the project. Here’s what happens next.
Hogsett, a Democrat, has remained neutral on the project. But the mayor chairs the board of IEDI, and his handpicked leader, former Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger, has publicly backed the project.
“This is cutting edge technology,” Schellinger said during the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing in August. “This is the first of many that are going to happen.”
Over the past few months, Councilor Michael-Paul Hart, a Republican who represents the area that Google wants to redevelop, has led a bipartisan effort to persuade councilors to reject the data center. He’s garnered support from 16 other councilors — enough to kill the proposal — and many of them have said they trust and rely on the judgment of the district councilor to decide what’s best for the area.
But Hart believes Hogsett has been heavily involved in the city’s negotiations with Google, and thinks he’s used IEDI to push the proposal forward — even as the community has rallied against it.
“We have the IEDI… under the direction of the mayor, openly lobbying councilors on a pending council decision,” Hart told Mirror Indy. “That, to me, is a massive problem that we have to look into after all this gets said and done.”
In a statement to Mirror Indy, a Hogsett spokesperson did not specifically address a Mirror Indy question about the mayor’s involvement or whether IEDI lobbied councilors.
“As the chair of the board of Indianapolis Economic Development Inc., Mayor Hogsett helps to set the goals, priorities and overall direction of the organization, which has already delivered $800-plus million in capital investment for our community in roughly nine months of operation,” the statement read, in part.
Schellinger declined a Mirror Indy request for an interview for this story. A separate IEDI leader also declined to elaborate on IEDI’s outreach to councilors, but answered a Mirror Indy question in an email.
“IEDI does not lobby on behalf of companies’ interests,” wrote Andrea Richter-Garry, an executive vice president with IEDI.
Transparency concerns
Still, at least some members of the City-County Council said they believed IEDI was working to influence how the councilors would ultimately vote on Google’s rezoning petition.
Councilor Josh Bain, a southside Republican, said he was contacted by IEDI employees but he told them to speak with Hart instead.
“They did not need to convince me of anything,” Bain told Mirror Indy. “They needed to convince the councilor that those people in that particular part of the county elected to represent them.”
Councilor Derek Cahill, another southside Republican, said he didn’t believe he was specifically lobbied — but he said IEDI did contact him in an attempt to discuss the data center.
During that call, Cahill said he questioned IEDI’s lack of transparency and communication with councilors, who do not have the power to appoint members to the organization’s board. Now, Cahill believes councilors’ mounting support for Hart — from both Republicans and Democrats — is also a way of pushing back against IEDI’s influence.
“(IEDI) were of the opinion that the council is more of just a rubber stamp at the end,” Cahill said. “And we shared that is definitely not the case, and that the district councilor should be involved fairly early on in the process.”
Mirror Indy attempted to contact the 11 council Democrats who publicly oppose the data center to see if they also had concerns about IEDI.
Only one, eastsider Jesse Brown, went as far as to say that IEDI was advocating for the project on behalf of the Hogsett administration, but several have raised concerns about the secretive nature of the project.
“Things are just not transparent,” Ali Brown, the council’s vice president, told Mirror Indy in an interview. “When we ask questions, they don’t have answers,” Brown added, referring to Google.
Councilor John Barth, who represents parts of the north side, has called for more transparency and community engagement.
“These decisions should be made with residents’ voices at the center,” Barth said in a written statement.
Concerns over transparency extended to the makeup of the IEDI board.
AES Indiana President Brandi Davis-Handy serves as the IEDI board secretary. Hart has publicly questioned if Davis-Handy’s positions are a conflict of interest — since state law outlines how utility companies can become eligible for substantial tax incentives if they provide power to data centers.
Davis-Handy, though, pushed back on that concern.
“As is standard practice on most boards, any potential conflict of interest would require a member to recuse themselves from voting,” Davis-Handy told Mirror Indy in an email. “However, in this case, I want to clarify that the IEDI board does not play a role in approving tax incentives for economic development projects. There has never been a vote from which I needed to recuse myself. ”
Hogsett says IEDI is like IEDC
IEDI was formed to replace Develop Indy, which was part of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, to “streamline the process for economic development,” according to Dan Parker, the mayor’s chief of staff.
“Indy Economic Development’s mission is job creation, job retention, and to make sure they’re the economic development organization that’s putting Indianapolis No. 1,” Parker told a City-County Council committee last month. “We wanted to make sure that we had an organization making sure that jobs get located here.”
Parker drew a distinction between IEDI and the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development, which he said is focused more on community, housing and real estate developments.
IEDI isn’t classified as a government entity, but the Hogsett administration has committed to allocating $1 million to the organization through 2027, money that previously went to Develop Indy.
Parker said the organization’s goal is to match the money it receives from the Hogsett administration with private donations to a separate foundation that’s linked to the nonprofit organization. Its total budget is expected to fall between $3 million and $4 million, Parker told the Indianapolis Business Journal last year.
Hogsett has compared the organization to the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which is charged with growing the state’s economy through job attraction and retention.
But even that organization has faced widespread, bipartisan criticism for shielding its economic development activities from the public.
Residents like York are concerned that IEDI has similar issues with transparency.
“This is against my interest because I don’t want their Google data center, but had they been more transparent about what that deal was, it could have potentially swayed more people to be in support of the data center,” York said. “Yes, transparency does have its drawbacks for some people, but I am all for open communication in those matters so that people can make informed decisions.”
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Elizabeth Gabriel covers the south side of Marion County. Contact her at elizabeth.gabriel@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on Facebook at Elizabeth Gabriel, Southside Reporter and on X at @_elizabethgabs.
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
