Michigan State University Associate Professor
Jean Hardy noted that Ionia has existing water capacity, including infrastructure from the former correctional facility, which could potentially be repurposed for a data center if one came to the area
Rural Michigan Farm Data Center
A farm in rural Michigan near Ionia is seeking to annex into a city in order to host a data center, and Ionia is planning a proactive public meeting on data centers. It is reported; the record holds no sourced date for when it reached that stage.
How much power it needs, how much water it would use and who would use it have not been disclosed.
How to read this page. Every fact links to the source it rests on; a number in brackets is its place in the source list. A figure no source gives reads Not disclosed, and nothing is estimated. Where sources give different figures, each is shown with who gave it, and another source's figure never stands in for the record's own. Entries are added and never overwritten; corrections are listed under What happened.
What is known
Each figure as its source gave it. The number in brackets is its place in the source list.
- Land
- Not disclosed
- Power it would draw
- Not disclosed
- Water
- Not disclosed
- Who leads it
- Not disclosed
- Who would use it
- Not disclosed
- Jobs once it runs
- Not disclosed
- Tax each year
- Not disclosed
Every field, with who said it and when (Researcher view)
Impact figures
| Field | Value | Who says so | Source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How much power it needs | Not disclosed | |||
| How much water it would use | Not disclosed | |||
| How loud it would be | Not disclosed | |||
| Jobs once it runs | Not disclosed | |||
| Tax it would pay each year | Not disclosed |
The record's fields
| Field | Value | Who says so | Source | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who is building it | Not disclosed | |||
| Who is constructing it | Not disclosed | |||
| How much land | Not disclosed | |||
| Where its power comes from | Not disclosed | |||
| Grid connection | Not disclosed | |||
| How it is cooled | Not disclosed |
The developer's figure is what the company said; what a permit allows is the ceiling a permit sets; measured means observed. Water is in gallons a day or a year, whichever the source stated; a tax claim given as a range shows both ends, each linked to the source that gave it.
Still not public, and where it would show up
The record adds each the day a source gives it. Why these documents.
- Water useA state water right filing or a water supply agreement.
- Who would use itA lease announcement or a tenant named in a filing.
- Power the campus would drawA utility or public service commission docket, an interconnection filing, or an air permit for an on site plant.
- Who is behind itA land record, a zoning application or a company's own announcement.
- Jobs and taxAn incentive agreement, a county's economic development filing or a fiscal note.
What happened
No dated entry is on the record yet.
2 corrections to this record
Every correction, with its reason
-
· the kind of source of a history entry
The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.
-
· the kind of source of a history entry
The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.
Every correction on the record is on the corrections page.
What was said
Jean Hardy, Michigan State University Associate Professor with the Department of Media and Information, said a data center proposal to Ionia, if it came, would be many years out and is unlikely
Consumers Energy representatives stated that data centers would not automatically increase electricity rates for nearby residents, as utility rates are subject to state regulatory approval
Every statement about data centers in Michigan, by speaker
1 more statement on this page
The site
Where in Ionia County is not in the public record. The pin marks the county seat, not a building, and the outline is the county.
Tap a pin for the data center, the parcel for its record
- This record: Proposed, ringed
- data center
- Dashed edge: the exact site is not in the public record
- Smaller pins: 10 other published records in Michigan
Details
- this record's location, ringed
- parcel outline, from the county parcel record
- city limits, U.S. Census Bureau, on a town level record
- county boundary
The other pins are the published projects in the same state, each in its stage color. The imagery beneath is the USGS national orthoimagery, public domain, shown so the land around the site can be read.
- Where
- Ionia, Ionia County, Michigan
- How exactly it is located
- County level, the county seat
- The parcel
- No parcel outline in the public record
- Nearest homes
- Not computed for a record placed at a place center
- Nearest records
- Nearest records are not computed for a record placed at a county seat.
Questions about this project
4 questions answered from the record
Who is building Rural Michigan Farm Data Center?
-
Not disclosed. No source on file names the developer. The sources read for this record are listed under Sources.
How much power and water does Rural Michigan Farm Data Center say it needs?
-
Power: not disclosed by any source on file. Water: not disclosed by any source on file.
Where does Rural Michigan Farm Data Center stand today?
-
It is reported; the date it reached that stage is not sourced, only the day a page was read. No dated entry is on the record yet.
What has Ionia or Ionia County decided about it?
-
No decision by Ionia or Ionia County about data centers is on the record. The Ionia County page and the Michigan scorecard list every rated row the day a person publishes one.
Sources
Reporting
- A farm wants a data center in rural Michigan — and it has to join a city to do it - Crain's Detroit, Crain's Detroit, September 4, 2026, local outlet
- Ionia to host ‘proactive’ meeting on data centers - woodtv.com, woodtv.com, September 2, 2026, local outlet
- Ionia has no data center proposal, but leaders are starting the conversation - fox17online.com, fox17online.com, September 10, 2026, local outlet
3 sources on file.
Cite this record
Data Center Record, "Rural Michigan Farm Data Center", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/rural-michigan-farm-data-center-ionia-mi, last verified September 17, 2026.
Cite this page
Data Center Record, "Rural Michigan Farm Data Center", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/rural-michigan-farm-data-center-ionia-mi. Data: Data Center Record, datacenterrecord.org, CC BY 4.0.
The structured rows are CC BY 4.0. Link to this page; that is what turns a reuse into a citation. Prose stays under copyright.
For researchers
- Slug
- rural-michigan-farm-data-center-ionia-mi
- Status value
- rumored
- Stage
- Proposed
- Tier
- skeleton
- Tags
- skeleton
- Place id
- us/mi/ionia-county/ionia
- Coordinates
- 42.98194, -85.06667
- Location precision
- county
- Location source
- County seat (Ionia), Wikidata, placed at county level
- Coordinate source
- wikidata county seat
- Location source number
- Not disclosed
- Location last verified
- September 16, 2026
- EPA registry id
- Not disclosed
- Use type values
- not_disclosed
- Tenancy value
- not_disclosed
- Cooling type value
- not_disclosed
- Capacity basis
- not_disclosed
- Water basis
- not_disclosed, gallons_per_day
- Acreage basis
- Not disclosed
- Interconnection value
- not_disclosed
- Capacity, if disclosed
- Not disclosed
- Rating of the county's rows
- Not disclosed
- Published
- 2026-09-05
- Last verified
- 2026-09-17