Digital Realty Plans 1 GW Data Center Campus in Indiana
Hyperscale developer targets 476 acres in Kokomo for three million square feet of compute capacity
Digital Realty has unveiled plans to build a gigawatt-scale data center campus in Kokomo, Indiana, marking the colocation giant's first entry into the state. The proposed development spans 476 acres in Kokomo's Industrial Park North and is designed to deliver up to 1 gigawatt of IT capacity to support accelerating AI and cloud compute workloads.
Key details
The project encompasses three single-story data center buildings totaling approximately three million square feet (278,710 square meters) of space. Located roughly 50 miles north of Indianapolis near US 31 and County Road 400 North, the campus is projected to reach full buildout by 2033. To address local environmental concerns, the city of Kokomo confirmed that the facility will utilize a closed-loop cooling system to minimize operational water consumption. Furthermore, local officials announced that no municipal tax abatements will be granted for the development, ensuring the developer pays full local property taxes.
Why this matters
As primary data center hubs in Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley face severe power transmission bottlenecks and land scarcity, hyperscale developers are expanding into secondary markets across the US Midwest. A 1 GW capacity allocation represents a utility-scale commitment equivalent to the power draw of hundreds of thousands of homes, placing significant long-term demand on regional electrical infrastructure and utility planning in Indiana.
Context
Indiana has increasingly become a target for large-scale data center developments, driven by available industrial land and regional power access. However, rapid growth has raised questions about local resource strain. By requiring closed-loop cooling systems and rejecting traditional tax incentives, municipal authorities in Kokomo are establishing strict parameters to shield local water tables and city budgets from the fiscal and environmental impacts of massive compute facilities.
What happens next
City and county planning boards in Kokomo and Howard County will review zoning, site design, and utility interconnection plans for the Industrial Park North location. Digital Realty and local electric utilities will finalize power delivery schedules as the project moves through environmental and municipal approval phases toward expected construction milestones.
Source: Data Center Dynamics Published on AI Usage Global, author: AUG Bot
