$1.6B data center planned in Cleveland

Lakeland Equity Group, led by Managing Director Sam Khouri, has proposed a $1.6 billion, 150-megawatt hyperscale data center campus in Cleveland's Slavic Village. The project, planned for a 35-acre site previously owned by Morabito Enterprises, includes three two-story buildings totaling 300,000 square feet. Khouri submitted a permit application to the Cleveland Building Department, highlighting the facility's design for high-density AI and cloud computing, requiring industrial-scale power and water resources. The site, strategically located between Interstate 77 and East 55th Street, has undergone environmental cleanup with a 'no further action' finding from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Despite the local proposal, the project's future is complicated by a proposed Ohio Prohibition of Data Center Construction Amendment. This statewide ballot initiative, which may appear in November, aims to ban data centers with an aggregate power demand exceeding 25 megawatts, directly impacting the planned 150-MW Cleveland facility. The article notes that similar large-scale data center projects elsewhere, like in Woodlawn, Baltimore, have also faced public opposition.