Southfield Data Center, Southfield, Michigan

The Southfield City Council, in Oakland County, Michigan, sat through nearly six hours of public comment on Metrobloks' data center before it voted. On Monday, December 15, 2025 it approved the site plan 5 to 2. The developer is Metrobloks, of Los Angeles, and the building is 109,683 square feet on 12.19 acres on the east side of Inkster Road between 11 Mile Road and I-696. Metrobloks' Jeff Mandel said it would draw 100 megawatts and cost roughly $1.5 billion across two phases; the project could bring 35 permanent jobs, and city officials estimated about $400,000 a year in property tax.

Council president Charles Hicks voted against: "I'm just concerned there's too many unknowns, not enough fact based information to make a good decision." Council president pro tem Coretta Houge voted for it: "We have to consider new technologies, new ideas, because that's just the way the world is going." Resident Lysa Davis asked: “This is a little scary ... Why do we have to be the first one?” An IT engineer, Terrance Francis, told the council: "Right now they're saying 100 megawatts ... it's 150 megawatts that they're really actually looking at by the time they break ground going forward."

At an earlier packed meeting, Metrobloks did not turn up, having presented its plans the week before. Sherry Evanscafe, who lives within walking distance, told the council: "I'm asking council to protect our neighborhoods. If the data center proposal is adopted that this area will be protected from pollution, noise and disruption." One Inkster Road resident supported the project but worried about traffic on a road already congested. Southfield already has about nine data centers, and Hicks put the proposal in that line: "For decades, our city has supported both large and small data centers as part of the broader technology ecosystem that serves residents, local businesses, hospitals and regional institutions."

Residents and the councillors who opposed it asked for a community benefits agreement and a health impact study, and questioned whether the infrastructure was ready.

Mayor Ken Siver said Metrobloks did not yet have all the money it needs: “Now that they've got a site that they can develop, they've got to find their customers, they've got to raise the rest of the money. They've got to do something within 18 months, or they've got to come back and renew it.” Its next step is submitting building plans to the city, which Siver said would oversee each permit: “No, the city will continue to monitor this.”