Construction of a roundabout necessary to start developing a data center campus in Middleton Township, Ohio, is set to begin shortly.
The data center proposal first emerged in September 2023, described as a $750 million data center campus spanning 600 acres, and attributed to an unnamed Fortune 200 tech company.
The campus is set to be built on land near I-75 and State Route 582, within the township, between Perrysburg and Bowling Green. The site is close to a First Energy substation on Mercer Road.
The development will include “several” 300,000 to 400,000-square-foot (28,870-37,160 sqm) buildings. Reports from September 2023 suggested that construction would begin in 2026, however, it may be sooner than expected.
Prior to construction beginning on the data center campus, a new roundabout on Ohio 582 needs to be developed to accommodate the increased traffic. It is estimated that more than 1,000 vehicles per day will be accessing the site during the peak of construction.
Work on this roundabout is set to commence next month reports BG Independent News, and according to Todd Audet and Rex Huffman of the Wood County Port Authority which is handling the roundabout effort, progress is expected to be fast.
Turn lanes from Route 25 will also be constructed to access the data center. The extra lanes will be added in front of the Middleton Township offices and will connect with an internal road into the data center development.
These roadworks are estimated to cost around $2.5m, which will be covered by the company behind the data center which remains anonymous, using the code name "Accordion."
Once the roundabout is operational, groundwork for the data center can begin, anticipated for "the next few months."
When the campus is fully developed, it is expected to employ around 50 people earning an average of $80,000 annually.
Nearby to the site, Apple was reportedly looking to develop a data center in late 2023. No updates have followed on this project.
Most of Ohio’s major data center development has been centered around Columbus, with facilities from the likes of AWS, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
