Minneapolis North Loop residents express concerns over proposed data center
A proposed data center by Legacy Investing in Minneapolis's North Loop neighborhood is facing strong community opposition. Residents are concerned about the project's power consumption and lack of detailed information from the developer. A zoning hearing is scheduled, and a city-wide moratorium on large data centers is in effect, though its impact on this specific project is unclear.
Legacy Investing, a Virginia-based data center company, is proposing an urban data center at the former Star Tribune printing facility in Minneapolis's North Loop. The developer also plans to incorporate housing and retail on the 13-acre site.
The proposal has met with significant community pushback, evidenced by a standing-room-only North Loop Neighborhood Association meeting, which drew the largest attendance in 20 years. Residents expressed skepticism, particularly regarding the project's power usage, estimated at 20 megawatts (equivalent to 16,000 homes), although the developer stated the downtown electrical grid could support this and that air cooling technology would not be water-intensive.
The neighborhood association stated it lacked sufficient detailed blueprints from Legacy Investing to make recommendations to the city. While a zoning hearing is reportedly scheduled for late September, the project's path forward is further complicated by a city council-enacted moratorium on data centers larger than 350,000 square feet, which expires in November. It remains uncertain if this moratorium impacts the current proposal, as it is still in the design phase.