Another data center proposed in southeast Wisconsin

Another large data center development could be coming to southeast Wisconsin.

The city of Kenosha’s plan commission will review a proposal from a developer for a four-building data center campus northwest of Interstate 94 and Highway 142 in Kenosha County. The site is about 6 miles south of a $3.3 billion Microsoft data center campus under construction in Mount Pleasant.

The identity of the operator of the proposed data center campus in Kenosha is unknown. The city, which has signed a non-disclosure agreement, is working with an engineering firm. That firm declined comment when contacted by WGTD in Kenosha.

Kenosha Development Director Tim Casey said it is not uncommon for data centers to “cluster.” He said the operator of the proposed site chose the property because it has adequate access to power and water.

The property is made up of six parcels totaling about 240 acres that is largely farmland, although it also includes homes and woods. The land is currently in the town of Paris, but is part of an area included in a boundary agreement between the town and Kenosha, and would be annexed into the city under the plan. 

According to documents included in the plan commission agenda, the proposal includes four 250,000-square-foot data centers and a substation.

The plan commission is set to take the first step of reviewing a request to rezone the properties at its Nov. 21 meeting.