Developer abandons data center plans in rural Brown County

A Texas-based developer is no longer pursuing a data center project in a rural Brown County village after the project faced pushback from the community.

In recent weeks, residents in the village of Greenleaf reported receiving offers to purchase their property ranging from $50,000 to $120,000 per acre from a Delaware-based limited liability company.

The purchase offers were made by Bear Creek DevCo LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. The principal address for the LLC matches that of Houston-based Cloverleaf Infrastructure, which was initially involved with development of a large data center in Port Washington that has drawn strong community opposition.

A spokesperson for Cloverleaf Infrastructure confirmed it was the company behind the real estate interest.

“After speaking to leadership at the Village of Greenleaf and the Town of Wrightstown, Cloverleaf will not be pursuing data centers in those jurisdictions,” the spokesperson said via email. “Cloverleaf prioritizes collaboration and engagement with local communities and their leadership.”

That announcement came after residents and a local business in Greenleaf raised concerns about the prospect of a data center in the community. Around a dozen residents attended a meeting of the town of Wrightstown and the village of Greenleaf Planning Commission last week to show opposition to a potential project.

And on social media, LedgeStone Vineyards, a local winery, described the potential project as an “attack” on the community’s identity by a “nameless, faceless, megacorporation.”

Another site Cloverleaf was eyeing is reportedly near the border of Manitowoc County and Kewaunee County, according to WLUK-TV.

The company spokesperson said Cloverleaf is still evaluating potential data center sites in northeast Wisconsin, but did not specify where in the region.