In the months since American Tower Corp., filed a petition to build a northwestside data center, residents haven’t heard much about the project.
Jane Howard, a retiree, said she wanted to know specifics about how the data center would affect residents and wildlife. More than anything, Howard wants to know why they can’t build the center somewhere else.
“Why does a commercial building belong in the middle of a neighborhood that has people of all ages?” Howard asked.
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Another day, another data center: Pike Township targeted for facility
American Tower Corp. wants to build a data center a mile from Ascension St. Vincent Hospital.
Another Pike Township resident, Terry Bonneau, wanted to know what the data center would be used for.
“Is this data center specifically for AI? Because if it is, I don’t want it,” Bonneau said.
Howard, Bonneau and more than 200 other people, including state and city elected officials, got a chance to learn more about the project and voice their concerns at the Jan. 14 meeting of the Pike Township Residents Association.
Attorneys, company engineers, and a project manager from American Tower explained their plan to build the 20,000-square-foot data center on 7 acres at 7701 Walnut Drive. They also answered questions from residents and from city-county councilors who could decide the project’s fate.
Here’s what they said.
New details about the data center
Project manager Patrick Sweetman explained the company was pursuing a data center on their Pike Township property to take advantage of land they already own. Their 52-acre site already has a 1,000-foot broadcast tower and several support buildings.
Sweetman said a new data center would give local customers new data storage options.
“We need more storage. This isn’t just a national thing. This is local as well. Local businesses need storage,” Sweetman said. “Some of the traditional big data centers in Northern Virginia are out of room. Businesses here, public safety here and communications here, they need data centers closer, especially as more and more data is needed and faster response times are needed.”
Company representatives also addressed concerns about how the data center would affect the environment.
Engineer David Glenn said the data center would only use city water for bathrooms and fire protection.
The data center’s internal, closed-loop cooling system would use a propylene glycol mixture called PG25 that would not be discharged into the wastewater system. The coolant lasts between five and seven years. When new coolant is required, the old coolant would be replaced by qualified professionals via a truck with proper recycling and exposure measures.
Glenn said the data center would also have several diesel-powered backup generators that would only be used during a power outage and during required monthly and yearly testing.
The company also said it does not have plans to add more data centers.
What elected officials wanted to know
District 1 Councilor Leroy Robinson, who represents the area, asked the company if it would delay its petition until the city-county council passes an ordinance on data centers — a prospect Robinson said could take several months.
“Would you strongly consider withdrawing your proposal to give us time at the local level to put some guardrails and guidance in place to address the data centers in our city,” Robinson asked.
Sweetman said the company would consider doing so.
State Sen. Greg Taylor, a Democrat who represents the district east of the proposed data center, asked the company if it would use tax incentives or abatements for its projects. The company said it would not request either.
State Sen. J.D. Ford, a Democrat representing the district west of the proposed data center, asked what the company would do for residents living near the site.
American Tower attorney Greg Mercier said the company would be able to expand the city’s digital infrastructure and keep up with local computing capacity needs.
What residents asked
Pike Township resident Steve Ward asked whether the data center’s electricity use would drive up costs for other customers on the grid.
The company has said it would require four megawatts of electricity from AES Indiana, enough to power between 2,000 and 4,000 homes.
Sweetman said the company has not entered into an agreement with the electric company yet but would use about 115,000 kilowatt hours per day on average and would pay for upgrade costs.
“When they tell us they do have 4 megawatts of capacity, that is the local substation. They are comparing that to their grid during the peak times. So they’re taking into account what they have available that they can give us. And yes, when we do need upgrades or anything like that, we pay for that, whether it’s out of pocket or that cost gets passed on to our customers,” Sweetman said.
Alex Bond, a data analyst who lives in Pike Township, submitted a petition of 1,170 signatures from residents that say they don’t want the data center to be built under any conditions. Bond asked if the company planned to build more than one data center on the property over time.
“We’re not looking to build three data centers here. We want our data center here, one data center. We have one operational in Raleigh, North Carolina markets. We want these spread out across the country. That’s why we’re evaluating our existing land,” Sweetman said.
What’s next?
The rezoning petition is scheduled to be heard by the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing examiner at 1 p.m. Feb. 12 at the City-County Building, 200 E. Washington St. It will also be streamed live.
Documents related to the proposal will be available here the week of the hearing.
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Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
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