Data center near Grand Rapids uncertain after residents shut down meeting

By Max Bryan, mbryan@detroitnews.com

A proposed knowledge heart in suburban Grand Rapids is in limbo after protesting residents shut down an preliminary planning fee assembly on the mission in early December.

The Lowell Township Planning Fee was requested Dec. 8 to think about light-industrial zoning for 235 acres at Covenant Enterprise Park, 4687 Alden Nash Ave., for a Franklin Lowell LLC knowledge heart, in line with the assembly agenda.

In line with an estimate from the town of Lowell, the deliberate knowledge heart may value between $500 million and $1 billion to construct and equip. The proposed knowledge heart web site is on land alongside Interstate 96 about 20 miles east of Grand Rapids in rural Kent County.

Franklin Companions, an Oak Brook, Illinois-based actual property improvement firm, has been in talks with “a nationwide, American-owned firm” for the mission, however will not be naming the info heart buyer as a result of the property has not but been offered, in line with a Dec. 18 information launch from the town.

After the Dec. 8 assembly was referred to as off resulting from residents clearing out the township board of administrators’ chambers, the township introduced in its Dec. 18 launch that Franklin Companions had despatched a letter requesting a pause on the zoning software.

The applicant requested “an indefinite suspension of the appliance and its approval course of” till it is able to resume, in line with an excerpt of a letter cited within the metropolis’s Dec. 18 information launch.

“Till extra particular mission particulars are identified and could be made obtainable, Franklin Companions has knowledgeable the township that it’s taking extra time on the rezoning software for the Covenant Enterprise Park,” Lowell Township Supervisor Jerry Hale stated in a press release. “Our planning fee is eradicating this software from the January agenda, however stays open to rethink a rezoning request sooner or later if and when the applicant renews its request and offers extra public data.”

Indignant residents flooded the Board of Supervisors chambers for the Dec. 8 Planning Fee assembly, prompting Metropolis Lawyer Cliff Bloom to inform the gang they may not proceed with the assembly “except some folks depart voluntarily” as a result of they exceeded capability.

In his reasoning, Bloom cited the Michigan Open Conferences Act, which says public conferences “shall be held in a spot obtainable to most of the people.” A member of the Lowell Space Hearth Division requested the gang to depart.

The residents’ present of pressure adopted two open homes in early December to tell the general public concerning the mission, in line with a press release from the town of Lowell.

The planning fee was scheduled to carry the rezoning listening to Jan. 12 at Lowell Excessive College because of the excessive turnout on the December assembly. This assembly has been postponed indefinitely because of the choice of Franklin Companions.

Town’s announcement follows the town’s Dec. 12 announcement that it was “suspending its participation within the mission.” In its assertion, the Kent County neighborhood stated Franklin Companions was required to offer particular particulars about water and wastewater use.

The cellphone quantity for Franklin Lowell LLC within the township planning fee agenda packet was not in service when The Detroit Information tried to achieve the corporate for remark. The corporate has an workplace in Grand Rapids.

The proposed knowledge heart in Lowell Township can be the sixteenth proposed in Michigan, in line with a Detroit Information evaluation.

The information heart moved ahead in accordance with a 2024 settlement between the township and the Metropolis of Lowell for the switch of the land in query.