No one wanted to redevelop this polluted property. Then came AI.

Viridian Partners, a Colorado-based real estate and investment company, in collaboration with Virginia-based Abbleby Strategy Group, has proposed an $8 billion, 800-megawatt data center campus on a 250-acre former General Motors plant site in Janesville, Wisconsin. This ambitious project aims to remediate the heavily contaminated "brownfield" property, which the city has owned since the plant's closure and has struggled to redevelop due to its pollution. The proposal aligns with a Trump administration initiative to repurpose blighted industrial sites for the artificial intelligence industry, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promising expedited environmental reviews and guidance. Janesville city officials, including City Manager Kevin Lahner and Forward Janesville's director Claire Gray, largely endorse the project, seeing it as a unique opportunity to create 600 permanent jobs and 13,000 construction jobs. The local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers also supports the plan. The data center would demand significant electricity, equivalent to the entire Milwaukee metro area, and would involve Viridian and Abbleby partnering with Alliant Energy and American Transmission Company for a new electrical substation and infrastructure upgrades. However, the project has sparked substantial local opposition. Residents such as Cathy Erdman and Pastor Ray Jewell, who live near the site, voice concerns about potential health impacts, noise pollution, decreased property values, and the city's over-reliance on the AI industry. Critics also highlight broader worries about the project's contribution to increased electricity bills and emissions, particularly in light of other large data center developments in Wisconsin, such as the $15 billion Stargate project backed by OpenAI and Oracle. Utility We Energies has already proposed new natural gas peaking plants to cope with escalating data center demand across the state. In response to these community concerns, Janesville voters will encounter a ballot initiative in November designed to halt the project, and at least two candidates for city council are campaigning on an anti-data center platform. Wisconsin Assemblymember Francesca Hong (D) has publicly advocated for a statewide data center moratorium. Janesville city officials are pushing for statewide legislation to mandate that data centers cover 100% of their infrastructure costs to safeguard consumers from price increases. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources would oversee the estimated $30 million cleanup of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and "forever chemicals" to ensure proper management and disposal.