Alterra Development Corporation Data Center, Marshall, Michigan

Alterra Development's proposed data center at Brooks Industrial Park in Marshall, Calhoun County, Michigan, is on hold for at least a year after the City Council voted on Aug. 3, 2026, for a 365-day moratorium on approving data centers. On Oct. 30, 2025, Marshall's Local Development Finance Authority unanimously approved selling the Ontario-based developer 270 acres, including 112 buildable acres, for $1.12 million.

Alterra pitched a shovel-ready site designed for 1 gigawatt of onsite power generation and a 1.5-gigawatt technology park, a minimum investment of $10 billion to $15 billion with 300 to 500 full-time jobs. The deal gave it a 180-day due diligence period, with extensions, to study power and a wetland mitigation framework with the state environment department. The site sits near wetlands and a lake, and Mayor Scott Wolfersberger said the finance authority had not considered the environmental concerns when it sold the land.

Wolfersberger said Alterra has since dropped the gas plant, cutting the project's energy use by 60%: "It's no longer a hyperscale data center by, you know, most definitions." The moratorium cites uncertainty about electricity, water use and heat discharge, and the city plans to write an ordinance limiting low-frequency noise during the pause. "We want to make sure they come and they talk to us and they have this conversation," Wolfersberger said.

Days after the vote, Marshall police alerted council members to death threats tied to the dispute that they judged credible, and Councilmember Ryan Traver wrote that "we are neighbors first." Alterra is still in due diligence, and no data center can be approved in Marshall until at least August 2027, though pending legislation in Lansing could affect how much local control the city keeps.