An unnamed tech company is proposing a $1.6 billion data center in the western Wisconsin city of Menomonie — and concerned citizens are raising the alarm.
The city council has annexed and rezoned around 320 acres of farmland, but some of those who voted yes say they don’t necessarily support the data center and need more information from developers.
There are a lot of unknowns about what would be the biggest development in the city’s history. A company called Balloonist LLC, formed in January 2024, has made the pitch to the Menomonie City Council, but won’t say which company would operate the data center.
Council member Sydney Brennan, who voted to annex from the neighboring Town of Red Cedar and rezone it, said the council has been told it’s one of five major tech companies.
“We know that it is a United States-based company,” Brennan said.
She said her vote wasn’t about the data center specifically, but about the “opportunity for economic development” that could come by expanding the city’s industrial park. Brennan said that could create openings that would keep graduates from the nearby University of Wisconsin-Stout in the city.
A frequently asked questions sheet posted by the city claims the 320-acre site would host a $1.6 billion data center, would provide up to 1,000 construction jobs and result in between 50 and 75 full time employees working “six-figure jobs.” The city estimates the data center would use around 75,000 gallons of water per day.
Since the data center proposal has become public, a growing number of residents from the city and surrounding areas have been trying to stop it. A Facebook group titled “Stop the Menomonie Data Center” has nearly 2,000 members.
Ahead of the council’s vote in August, dozens of people voiced concerns about the water usage, noise and light pollution and the loss of farmland in the area.
An attorney representing Balloonist LLC told the council delaying action on the annexation petition from landowners in Red Cedar and the rezoning “is not going to introduce extra information that would inform this body about what could potentially happen at the site.”
Council member Cody Gentz said he was unconvinced and voted no.
“A lot of people are either very skeptical of the project or downright do not want anything to do with a data center, especially given some of the other projects, other data centers that have been built around the state and around the country,” Gentz said. “There’s a lot of stories coming out about the negative consequences potentially associated with a data center.”
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One of the skeptics is Menomonie resident Peter Gruetzmacher, who is part of the group trying to block the data center. He’s hosted meetings at his restaurant to organize the opposition.
Gruetzmacher criticized nondisclosure agreements related to the project that were signed by the city’s administrator and public works director, and the speed with which the council approved the annexation and rezoning.
“I’ve got four businesses in this community,” Gruetzmacher said. “I can tell you I’ve never seen anything pushed through that quickly with such little fanfare.”
Gruetzmacher said with secrecy surrounding the data center, “people kind of assume the worst.”
The city’s longtime mayor, Randy Knaack, also opposes the project, but said there’s “a lot of hoops to jump through” for the company. That includes Balloonist LLC actually buying the land from the owners who petitioned the city for annexation, and negotiating a development agreement that would have to be approved by the council.
“It’s too big of a data center for Menomonie,” Knaack said. “If it would be a smaller footprint, it may fit better in that area. But that’s such prime farmland — 320 acres that could be used for lots of different things.”
Knaack said he’d prefer to see something like a campground or even a chain store like Menards build on the land. Knaack also criticized recent changes to state law that drastically reduce how much tax revenue the city would get from the data center. Those include a sales and use tax exemption for data centers created in the 2023 state budget and the repeal of the state’s personal property tax exemption passed by lawmakers the same year.
As a result, Knack said the city would get around $1.7 million in tax revenues from the proposed data center each year.
“So, that would certainly help out the budget for the city,” Knaack said. “But as far as the pros and the cons at this time, my personal opinion is that the cons outweigh the pros several times over.”
Council member Matthew Crowe, who works with the Dunn County Economic Development Corporation, said his votes for annexation and rezoning “is not contingent on the data center coming.” He said he wanted to expand the city’s industrial park regardless of what happens with the $1.6 billion project.
“We get requests for information fairly often from developers, and oftentimes we can’t even pursue what they’re asking for because we don’t have enough land,” Crowe said.
Lee Schwebs has been on the Menomonie City Council for 25 years and said the data center proposal has generated a bigger response from the community than anything else he can remember. Schwebs said while he voted to annex and rezone the 320 acres, “I did not vote for the data center.”
Schwebs, like the mayor, said he’d rather see a Menards or a dairy processing facility on the expanded industrial zone, and he doesn’t like the secrecy from Balloonist LLC and whichever company is behind the project. Still, Schwebs also acknowledged there’s “going to be a growing need for the data centers.”
“You know, we all do it. We email, we send cat pictures to friends,” Schwebs said. “You know, we’re our own worst enemies. If we don’t like this, then maybe our responsibility is we quit doing some of this.”
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