Citing Opposition, Microsoft Cancels Caledonia Data Center
But it is still moving forward on other projects and intends to find another site nearby.
A Microsoft data center is situated near a hiking trail Tuesday, April 8, 2025, in West Des Moines, Iowa. Angela Major/WPR
Microsoft will not move forward with a data center development in a Racine County community and will look to find a new site for the project.
The company announced the decision in a statement on Wednesday, citing “community feedback.”
Many residents of the village of Caledonia were strongly opposed to Microsoft’s plans to build on more than 240 acres in a rural area of the community. About 40 people spoke out against the project during more than two hours of public comment at a Village of Caledonia Plan commission meeting last month.
The move comes as data center projects across Wisconsin, and the country, face increased community scrutiny. That includes a proposal in Port Washington that drew strong local opposition Tuesday night.
A spokesperson for Microsoft said the change of plans in Caledonia does not impact its data center developments underway in Mount Pleasant or Kenosha.
Microsoft had been looking to build a data center campus on 244 acres in Caledonia that needed to be rezoned from an agriculture district to a light manufacturing and office district. The village plan commission approved the rezoning late last month and the Village Board was expected to take the issue up at its Oct. 14 meeting.
Racine County officials say they have been in contact with Microsoft and will work with the company to identify an alternative site in the county, possibly even in Caledonia, that could meet its needs.
County Executive Ralph Malicki said Microsoft did not seek local development incentives for its initial plan in Caledonia. He also said he isn’t sure how the search for a new site would affect the company’s development timeline.
“I hope we can move forward at the speed that is necessary for them to be in the area,” he said.
But he also said he was confused about the pushback the Caledonia proposal received from the community.
“It’s something that obviously we haven’t seen, especially with the Mount Pleasant location,” he said. “Personally, I’m a little perplexed by it. … So far, our experiences with Microsoft have been nothing but positive.”
Caledonia Village Trustee Fran Martin said she felt the village board was being asked to approve the zoning for the project without enough details about Microsoft’s plans.
In talking to local economic development leaders about the project, she said, it “was clear that there was some constraint” on the information they could provide.
Martin said she’s open to future discussions with the company if it identifies another property in Caledonia.
“We would still need thorough information, but I have nothing against Microsoft,” Martin said. “I do commend them for being responsive to the community.”
Caledonia Village Trustee Nancy Pierce, who sits on the village plan commission, voted against the rezoning for the data center development at last month’s plan commission meeting. She said she felt the plan commission didn’t have enough information at that time.
She also said she isn’t sure if there’s another suitable location in the village.
“I’m not specifically personally aware of any,” Pierce said. “I think if Microsoft is willing to look at us, we certainly would be willing to look and continue to work with them.”
This is an aerial rendering of what the planned data center campus in Port Washington could look like. Photo courtesy of the City of Port Washington
Port Washington project faces strong pushback
Microsoft’s decision comes as another data center project in southeast Wisconsin is also facing strong community opposition.
Hundreds of people attended a Port Washington City Council meeting on Tuesday, calling on the city to block the data center campus.
Many of the community members who spoke in public comments cited concerns about energy and water usage. Some also felt that local officials had not sufficiently listened to their concerns.
The four data center buildings planned in Port Washington are expected to need 1.3 gigawatts of electricity, while the data center campus will use a closed-loop cooling system that doesn’t continuously draw freshwater for cooling, according to the city.
The community pushback may be too late to do anything to stop the project.
The Port Washington City Council already approved a development agreement with Denver-based Vantage Data Centers, the developer behind the project. In the first phase of the development, Vantage plans to spend $8 billion to build four data center buildings.
Mayor Ted Neitzke said Tuesday that a groundbreaking for the campus could come in the next six to eight weeks. He said construction on the project’s two phases is expected to begin this year and run through 2034.
Neitzke said the city anticipates the project will create 10,852 jobs during the construction phase and 508 jobs in operations of the campus. He also said the development would allow the city, local school district and Ozaukee County to increase their tax base while providing property tax relief to residents.
“Our public schools are struggling and drowning because we have declining enrollment across the state,” he said. “The only thing that cities and school districts can do to survive is (make sure) there is growth in their region, and our region will grow as well as our services.”
And from May 2024 through March 2025, $64 billion in data center projects across the country were blocked or delayed by “a growing wave of local, bipartisan opposition,” according to a report from Data Center Watch, a group funded by an artificial intelligence company that tracks local opposition.
Of that $64 billion, the report says $18 billion worth of projects were blocked and $46 billion were delayed.
Microsoft scraps plans for Caledonia data center site, working to find an alternate location was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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