CLEVELAND — Mayor Justin Bibb says he has “real concerns” about massive data centers popping up in Cleveland neighborhoods, in light of a proposal on the drawing board in Slavic Village.
A Westlake-based group filed a permit application with the city this week for a $1.6 billion data center campus. The 35-acre site is a dormant truck yard wedged between East 49th and East 55th streets, just east of Interstate 77.
The proposal came as a surprise to neighbors and city officials.
“Seeing that … really caught me off guard,” Bibb said during an interview Thursday, after taking to social media to let people know he’s hearing their questions.
“And I want to make sure that we’re protecting our residents, protecting the Slavic Village neighborhood,” he added. “And we need to make sure we have sensible regulations in place to protect Clevelanders. I know the state legislature is also taking a look at this.”
Communities across Ohio are grappling with how to respond to data centers, as a wave of proposals — some legitimate, others speculative — sweeps across the state. Some local governments have put moratoriums in place, temporarily banning new projects while they consider changes to their zoning codes and other regulations.
RELATED: Is a data center a blessing or a curse? It depends on the community.
Cleveland City Council is considering legislation that would press pause on any new data center projects until May 1, 2027. That legislation, sponsored by Councilman Charles Slife, was introduced in late April but hasn’t been discussed at a committee hearing yet.
RELATED: Cleveland is considering a moratorium on new data center projects
By starting the permit process now, the real estate investment firm targeting Slavic Village is positioning that project to be considered under Cleveland’s existing zoning code, which doesn’t clearly define or regulate data centers. It’s too early to say if Lakeland Equity Group, the company behind the proposal, will run into roadblocks in that attempt.
The submission in the city’s online permitting portal says the campus would have a power capacity of 150 megawatts. It would be “the city’s first state-of-the-art, hyperscale facility,” designed to handle everything from cloud computing to key business processes to the demands of artificial intelligence.
The filing mentions a 300,000-square-foot, two-story structure.
Sam Khouri, managing director of Lakeland Equity Group, wrote in an email that the project is still in the planning phase. Through a spokesman, he later declined to answer specific questions about the proposal, saying it’s either too early or the information is proprietary.
“Lakeland Equity Group sees this data center project as a rare opportunity to create positive economic momentum and a significant number of jobs on land that is currently underutilized,” the company wrote in a statement. “It is important to note that data center technology has evolved significantly and favorably in recent years
“For cooling, the architecture uses closed-loop technology that recirculates water without the need for a constant feed, dropping water consumption by 80-90% compared to older systems. Modern facilities like the ones we propose produce no smoke, no fumes and no truck traffic. They do not foul the neighborhood’s air, do not wear down city streets and do not disrupt the life around them.”
The company said it plans to work with “local constituents” and regional economic development organizations to make the project a reality.
The site, surrounded by houses, vacant lots and battered old commercial buildings, is zoned for industrial use. It was the longtime home of the S.B. Morabito Trucking Co. The property has been marketed for sale, on and off, for years.
Owner Ben Morabito did not return a phone call from News 5.
Staff members at Slavic Village Development, the local community development corporation, did not respond to phone messages or emails. Councilwoman Deborah Gray, who represents the neighborhood, did not respond to an interview request.
Several neighbors on nearby streets said they hadn’t heard about the proposal.
With its industrial history and tightly packed neighborhoods, Cleveland doesn’t have the sprawling sites that are drawing interest from the data center industry in other parts of Northeast Ohio. In Lake County, for example, a developer is pitching a 217-acre project in Perry Village, on a former agricultural property.
That project, called Perry Technology Park, could involve up to 2 million square feet of buildings and 200 long-term jobs.
RELATED: Crowd packs Perry Village hall to protest 200-plus-acre data center campus
Slife, the councilman proposing the data center moratorium in Cleveland, pointed to the Slavic Village proposal as evidence that his legislation isn’t an overreaction.
Bibb said there’s a balancing act here, and officials at City Hall are having thoughtful conversations about the best way to approach data centers. In another recent interview, he noted that large tech firms and artificial intelligence aren’t going away, and investments in technology are important to American competitiveness and national security.
“There are many companies in Cleveland, from the Cleveland Clinic to Sherwin-Williams, to many state and local government agencies that have warehouse facilities, that have cloud storage to keep our computer systems resilient in case of a natural disaster,” Bibb said Thursday. “So we want to protect those businesses, and … small businesses as well.”
And Bibb does not want to end up in a clash with Columbus, as state lawmakers across the political spectrum consider bills that would regulate data centers and curtail their spread.
“We want to make sure we work with City Council,” he said. “We also want to make sure we work with the state legislature … because what we don’t want to do is get ahead of the state — and then there’s an attack against the city around home rule.
“But, full stop, I’m really concerned about hyperscale data centers flooding our neighborhoods without protections that protect our residents and protect our environment.”
Michelle Jarboe is the business growth and development reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @MJarboe or email her at Michelle.Jarboe@wews.com.
