Data centers in Ingham County, Michigan: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Hours before the Lansing City Council was due to vote on April 6, 2026, the U.K. company Deep Green withdrew its plan for a downtown data center, and the project died. Deep Green had announced the $120 million project in November 2025 with the Lansing Board of Water & Light. It was a 24-megawatt data center of about 25,000 square feet, with a 16-megawatt natural gas fuel cell plant, on vacant parking lots near South Cedar and East Kalamazoo streets. The pitch was a "different kind of data center": its waste heat would feed the utility's downtown heating loop, which is being converted from steam to hot water. BWL general manager Dick Peffley said that would let the utility eliminate, or shrink by 75 percent, a planned $5 million satellite plant. The company promised to stay within city noise limits, pay for its own power infrastructure, cool with a closed loop using about 500,000 gallons of water a year, "in line with the Wendy's across the street," and donate $120,000 a year to BWL's program for low-income customers facing shutoffs.

The project won a 5-2 planning commission recommendation in March, after an earlier rezoning request had been turned down, but it ran into resistance on the council. Critics raised environmental justice concerns about placing it in a poorer neighborhood. "There's going to be five to ten employees going in there from day to day," said Jerry Norris, arguing that a restaurant or housing would do more for downtown. Council member Trini Pehlivanoglu said the company's promises needed to be "legally binding." Many residents doubted the environmental promises; Michigan Advance noted that the fuel cells would still emit carbon dioxide, at 60 to 70 percent of a conventional gas plant's emissions. Council member Ryan Kost said Deep Green likely withdrew because it lacked the votes for the land sale: "if you can't sell the property, then the entire thing's dead." The company gave no reason, saying only that it would keep working with partners in Michigan.

The lots remain parking for now, and Mayor Andy Schor has asked those who wanted housing there instead to bring forward their own development proposals. Three Ingham County communities have since paused new data centers on their own: Lansing's council adopted a six-month moratorium in July 2026 that runs to January 11, 2027, Meridian Township's runs to November 19, 2026, and East Lansing extended its own moratorium, first passed in March 2026, through March 2027.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.