Potawatomi Plans to Test Milwaukee’s Data Center Moratorium

Forest County Potawatomi Community’s data center at 3135 W. Highland Blvd.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community is preparing to expand its Milwaukee data center, setting up what could be the first major test of the city’s newly adopted moratorium on data center development.

A zoning change application filed with the city proposes a 59,000-square-foot addition to the tribe’s existing 46,000-square-foot Data Holdings facility at 3135 W. Highland Blvd.

The proposal comes just weeks after the Common Council unanimously approved a one-year moratorium on new data centers and expansions of existing facilities, a response to growing concerns about the industry’s energy consumption, water use, noise and other environmental impacts.

But the moratorium includes an exemption for projects that pursue a detailed planned development zoning change, which requires site-specific review and approval by the City Plan Commission and the Common Council.

Potawatomi’s proposal would use that exemption, seeking an amendment to the previously approved detailed planned development for its Wgema Campus, the former Concordia University campus at 3234 W. State St.

And unlike a controversial proposal to develop a 19,000-square-foot, AI-focused data center at the former Midtown Center Walmart, Potawatomi already has a functioning data center that has operated without controversy for more than a decade.

Data Holdings general manager and chief technology officer Ryan Brooks, who spoke in support of the moratorium in September, said the company is only beginning to explore the expansion.

“We’ve been encouraged by the demand from local companies and institutions for our data center services,” Brooks said in a statement to Urban Milwaukee. “We are in the early stages of exploring a potential expansion onto an adjacent vacant lot on tribal trust land, consistent with long-term planning that began several years ago.”

“We’re still several months away from having specific plans to share,” he said.

Brooks emphasized that the proposal isn’t intended to transform the business into one of the massive artificial intelligence-focused data centers popping up in Southeastern Wisconsin.

“The purpose isn’t changing, and this isn’t a hyperscale AI development. We would continue operating much as we do today, just with additional capacity,” he said.

The addition would be developed immediately west of the existing brick-clad data center, on a site currently occupied by solar panels.

A 2020 zoning amendment authorized the solar installation and battery backup system for five years while the tribe considered future development of the property. The new application indicates the solar equipment would be relocated to the rooftop as part of the expansion.

The application describes the purpose of the zoning change as “future expansion of tribal business on Forest County Potawatomi Community trust land to diversify and generate revenue streams for the tribal government’s critical services and programs.”

The existing 46,000-square-foot data center opened in 2013 and provides colocation and technology services for businesses, government agencies and other customers. Brooks said in September that the facility had approximately 80 customers.

The building is LEED Gold certified and uses a closed-loop cooling system that does not consume water for cooling, according to Brooks. Water consumption is limited to basic plumbing needs.

The proposed 59,000-square-foot addition is also notable for its size.

The draft permanent zoning regulations introduced by Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, the lead sponsor of the moratorium, would prohibit data centers larger than 60,000 square feet without special approval. At 59,000 square feet, the proposed addition would fall just below that threshold if evaluated separately from the existing facility.

It is not clear whether the size was selected with the proposed regulations in mind or how the city would apply the threshold to an expansion that would bring the total facility to approximately 105,000 square feet.

The 2.46-acre property is too small to accommodate the sprawling hyperscale facilities being developed on large tracts of land outside Milwaukee. But the expansion would more than double the existing building’s square footage.

The land is held in trust for the tribe and is exempt from property taxes. Potawatomi makes a payment in lieu of taxes to the city associated with its casino operations, but the data center property does not generate conventional property tax revenue.

Review Still Months Away

The Department of City Development confirmed that it received the application, but said detailed plans are not yet available.

The tribe will need to submit a full set of development plans and an accompanying narrative before the proposal advances through the city’s review process.

Those documents will be made public before hearings at the City Plan Commission and the Common Council’s Zoning, Neighborhoods and Development Committee. The full Common Council would ultimately need to approve the zoning change.

No hearing dates have been established.

The proposal is located in the 4th Aldermanic District, represented by Robert Bauman. An amendment to the moratorium was previously attached to the moratorium’s legislative file that would have exempted Potawatomi. It listed Bauman as the sponsor, but the document was removed and never publicly discussed before the moratorium was approved.

Bauman is supporting the expansion. He said there have been no issues or complaints with the existing facility and that a neighboring home is under contract for $400,000.

“After much discussion about 13 years ago regarding setbacks and architecture, the project was approved. The building blends in very well in a 1890s residential neighborhood,” he said.

Legislation Link - Urban Milwaukee members see direct links to legislation mentioned in this article. Join today

Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.