Data centers in Monroe County, Ohio: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Hannibal, on the Ohio River, has been promised a data center before. In 2019 DP Facilities announced plans for one on the site of the former Ormet aluminum smelter, next to the new Long Ridge Energy Terminal gas plant; Monroe County's economic development director, Jason Hamman, said it never came to fruition, the Athens County Independent reported.

Now Mara Holdings, one of the largest bitcoin miners, has agreed to buy the Long Ridge plant and its roughly 1,600-acre site for about $1.5 billion, including $785 million of debt, and says it will start building an initial 200 megawatts of AI data center capacity in the first half of 2027, ready in mid-2028, with room to grow to 600 megawatts through grid expansion and more on-site generation, DCD reported. Mara says it does not intend to reduce the plant's supply to the PJM grid, so consumers should see no direct impact. "Power is the scarce input in AI," chief executive Fred Thiel said.

Hamman is more cautious. Mara had leased a bitcoin mining facility in the area for several years, and he said he believes that facility is what the company now describes as a 200-megawatt data center; he had no job estimates, the Independent reported in August 2026. The gas plant employs about 20 people, whom Mara has said it will keep. The sale was expected to close in the second half of 2026. Monroe County has not adopted a moratorium or other rules for data centers.

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.