Carrollton Industrial Campus data center, Carrollton, Kentucky

PowerHouse Data Centers and the Louisville real estate firm Poe Companies want to build a $9.6 billion data center campus, the Carrollton Industrial Campus, on 550 acres east of Interstate 71 on Greens Bottom Road outside Carrollton, in Carroll County, Kentucky. It is the pair's second Kentucky campus, after a planned 150-acre, 400 megawatt site in Louisville's Rubbertown district.

Part of the site is city land beside Carrollton Utilities' regional wastewater treatment plant, bought in 2019 for a plant expansion that is no longer needed. "We believe that this location is well suited for a data center, due to the poor agricultural and development qualities of the property; its location sandwiched between the Interstate and a large, regional sewage treatment plant; and the availability of resources which will not result in any increase in local utility costs," the city said. In July 2025 Mayor Robb Adams signed an unrecorded option contract to sell 340 acres of public land for the project, after the council spent almost two hours in executive session and then voted to sell or buy several unnamed properties. The development team did not announce the plan until July 2026.

Hank Hillebrand, president of Poe Companies, told Carroll County Fiscal Court that the company has an agreement to buy 800 megawatts of power from Kentucky Utilities, and that no site plan has been shown because it could depend on the eventual tenant. Any transmission upgrades will reportedly be paid for by the developers. County economic development director Matthew Dusing called it the second hyperscale project showing significant interest in the county. "Projects of this scale come with real considerations and the Fiscal Court is dedicated to ensuring any project that moves forward is structured well and done right for Carroll County," he said. The developers promise 320 permanent jobs and project $64 million for education.

At an information meeting at the fairgrounds on August 18, 2026, IDs were checked at the door and only county residents were let in; reporters who lived elsewhere were kept outside. "I don't trust the jobs numbers. I don't trust the tax numbers," said Amy Wright, who lives a few miles from Greens Bottom. Angela Turner, who lives in Greens Bottom and is raising her granddaughter, said: "The biggest thing of the whole entire thing is that five people sat on a council and took our voice away." Mike Wood, whose land by the site once belonged to his great-grandfather, told the city council: "I will hold you accountable for what you have done." State Senator Gex Williams said the city "made some serious mistakes in terms of their [non-disclosure agreements] and extending it too long," but had opened up since.

Carroll County has no county-wide planning and zoning commission; the Fiscal Court voted in August 2026 to begin forming one, which will take years. "It's a little too late now that we want to talk about that," said Laura Beth Austin of Ghent, where a second, smaller data center is planned.

Hillebrand said Poe wants to begin grading and electrical work in the second quarter of 2027, once the project clears the Kentucky Division of Water and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, with buildings on high ground at least 500 feet from neighbors. He put the projected noise at 65 decibels, below the 70 to 80 of nearby I-71, and water use at about 2 to 8 million gallons a year in a closed-loop system, possibly using reclaimed water from the city's treatment plant next door.