Inside Google's Planned Hyperscale Data Center in Hermantown, Minnesota

Google is planning one of northern Minnesota's largest-ever private developments in Hermantown, a city of roughly 10,000 people on the edge of Duluth. The proposed hyperscale data center campus would reshape the city's southwest quadrant, its tax base, and its utility infrastructure for years to come — and it has already become one of the most closely watched and hotly debated projects in the region.

Here's what the project actually involves, where it stands, and why it has divided the community.

A campus measured in millions of square feet

The development is formally known as the Section 31 Hermantown Industrial Project. Behind that generic name is a build of remarkable scale.

The plan calls for multiple buildings totaling up to 1.8 million square feet, including up to four data center buildings, each a single story tall. The campus would sit on a study area of roughly 278 acres across 26 parcels in the southwest quadrant of the city — a footprint already trimmed down from an original 403 acres.

The technical profile is classic hyperscale. The buildings would rely on non-evaporative mechanical cooling, supported by on-site substations, equipment yards, transmission lines, backup generators, fuel storage, and possible battery energy storage. The campus would also need new roads, parking, stormwater management, perimeter fencing, and extended public water and sewer service.

Power, water, and money: the three big levers

Three factors will ultimately determine whether a project of this size succeeds: electricity, infrastructure, and economics.

Power. A hyperscale campus needs an enormous, reliable supply of electricity, and securing it is one of the hardest prerequisites for any site. In Hermantown, that piece is being handled through an electric service arrangement with Minnesota Power, the regional utility.

Water and infrastructure. Serving the campus requires major extensions of municipal water and sewer service into a largely rural part of the city, coordinated with St. Louis County and the Western Lake Superior Sanitary Sewer District (WLSSD). Those utility extensions alone are expected to take about two years to build.

Economics. The financial backbone of the project is a development agreement and tax abatement package negotiated with the developer. The tax terms have become a flashpoint, with residents questioning why a company of Google's size should receive abatement, and asking how the deal would affect funding for local schools.

Environmental review and a contested approval path

The city is evaluating the project's environmental impacts through an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) rather than a full Environmental Impact Statement — a choice that has drawn criticism from opponents who want a more rigorous study. The review, prepared with outside engineering and planning consultants, examines noise, water resources, traffic, wildlife, and other impacts across the study area.

To make the development possible, the city also amended its 2045 Comprehensive Plan, updating the land use, transportation and utilities, and implementation chapters. Those amendments passed by a narrow 4–1 vote, with the mayor casting the lone dissent.

If approvals proceed, preliminary site work such as tree clearing could begin as early as fall 2026 or early 2027, with mass grading following in spring 2027. The full master-planned campus is expected to take more than five years to complete and would be built in distinct, sequential phases.

A community sharply divided

Few projects in the region have generated as much public engagement. Residents have turned out in large numbers, and the response has been intense on both sides.

Opponents have raised concerns about well water and groundwater protection, PFAS associated with coolants and fire-suppression systems, operational noise, the cost of maintaining new roads and utilities, declining rural land values, and the speed and transparency of the approval process. Environmental and conservation groups have weighed in, and some speakers have urged the city to weigh concerns raised by the Fond du Lac Band. An organized opposition campaign has formed around the project.

Supporters — including building-trades workers, economic-development advocates, and pro-growth coalitions — point to construction and union jobs, a substantially larger commercial tax base, and long-term economic growth for Hermantown and the broader Duluth area. The city has scheduled public meetings to walk residents through the environmental review and development scenarios.

Why it matters

The Hermantown project is a snapshot of a much larger national story: the race to build the physical infrastructure behind cloud computing and AI is pushing hyperscale data centers into smaller communities that have never hosted anything like them. These projects bring real investment and jobs, but also real strain on power grids, water systems, and local trust.

For Hermantown, the decision is about more than a single campus. It's about what kind of city it wants to be over the next several decades — and whether the benefits of becoming a hub for one of the world's largest companies outweigh the costs and disruption that come with it. That debate is still very much unresolved.