Logistix Data Center, Frankfort, Indiana

On 20 January 2026 the Clinton County commissioners unanimously refused to rezone 715 acres of farmland north of Frankfort for a data center campus proposed by Logix Realty. Logix Realty is an affiliate of the developer Logistix, whose president, Doug Swain, had said the project would bring more than $10 billion of investment.

Swain laid out the plan on 15 July 2025 to about 30 landowners and others in the Chamber of Commerce meeting room in the Iron Block Building: more than 700 acres north of the Conagra plant, up to 7 million square feet in several buildings, as much as 600 megawatts, and a buyer to be found among well capitalized firms such as Meta or Amazon, with everyone involved under a nondisclosure agreement. Asked about water, he said newer data centers use less and some are air cooled; asked about noise, he compared it to road traffic; asked where residents could see something similar, he said "you may have to at least go to Ohio". He put the jobs at half a job per megawatt, about 300, paying around $100,000 a year, and said of the tax effect: "we are studying that right now".

The first application, filed by Logix Realty on 3 July 2025, asked Frankfort to rezone 833 acres from agriculture to general business and bring the land inside the city, and was due before the city plan commission on 23 July. Mayor Judith Sheets put out a statement on the "frustration, fear, and anger circulating throughout our community regarding the proposed data center project", and Logistix rescinded the request, saying it would go to the county instead. The county commissioners said at the time that they were "not for or against the proposal at this time" and needed more information.

In early September 2025 Logistix brought the county area plan commission a smaller plan, the Logix I campus on 155 acres across the railroad from the Conagra plant, with about 170 jobs and $1 billion of investment. More than 100 people came, more than a dozen spoke about noise, light and water, and Kevin Myers, a plan commission member who is also a county commissioner, said: "There's too many unanswered questions that I don't feel like I could be in favor of anything but a negative recommendation." The board deadlocked and sent the request on with no recommendation, after member Jeff Chynoweth, the one vote against a negative recommendation, was booed for saying some people would say no to anything on that land. On 18 November 2025, before the commissioners voted, Logix withdrew it; the area plan director, Liz Stitzel, said a revised filing would follow and could grow to about 1,200 acres with a casting company involved.

The new petition covered 714.55 acres in Washington and Union townships, named DataOne as the intended user, and described a three part campus: a data center, a precast concrete plant and a hydroponic "gigafarm". At the 6 January 2026 hearing supporters put the first investment at $10 billion to $12 billion, rising possibly to $50 billion, and neighbors raised aquifer depletion, noise and the loss of farmland. The developer agreed in principle to 14 binding commitments, among them a 65 decibel limit at the property line, closed loop water and a decommissioning plan backed by financial security, and Stitzel told the board: "Staff would strongly caution against any favorable recommendation without a full set of clear commitments." The commission voted to send a favorable recommendation.

Two weeks later commissioners Bert Weaver, Kevin Myers and Jordan Brewer turned it down. Myers said: "Given what this has put our community through and given that the majority of our residents are against this project, I cannot support the rezone." Weaver said the project "could be a tremendous boost" but that he had grown "uncomfortable" with the negotiations, and Brewer said: "We want development, but we want to work with partners we trust on projects that are economically beneficial to the community as a whole." Weaver also objected that the developer had offered to pay for only half of the road in front of the entrance, which he called a red flag, and reportedly said it wanted to "nickel and dime" the county. The denial bars the same request for 12 months.

Inside the city, the Frankfort Board of Zoning Appeals had granted Logix a variance for a data center on land east of Conagra on 23 April 2025. On 2 February 2026 Mayor Sheets set conditions for any DataOne proposal in the city industrial park, including public town halls and published economic and environmental impact studies, saying: "Our community deserves facts and not assumptions when evaluating a project of this magnitude." In September 2026 DataOne asked the city to approve a $7.5 billion "AI factory" on 115 acres of the Logix Innovation Campus, land already zoned for light industry, with an 800,000 square foot building and about 200 permanent jobs. Its chief executive, Charles-Antoine Beyney, promised closed loop cooling using about 22,000 gallons a day, on-site fuel cells and no diesel generators, and two new substations paid for by the company, and named the chief complaints at its Vineland, New Jersey campus as "Lack of communication, number one by far," followed by noise.

At the company's open house on 21 September 2026, electrical engineer Kevin Thomas put the draw at 350 megawatts from the grid through IMPA plus 175 megawatts from Bloom Energy gas fuel cells. The city's financial adviser, Gary Smith of Reedy Financial Group, projected about $331 million for Frankfort through 2054, against a shortfall of $4.3 million to $4.5 million in 2030 from state tax changes that could otherwise cost about 40 city jobs. Deborah Pearson, a county council candidate from Center Township, said she was "adamantly opposed", and a masked protester outside called data centers "a cancer in the community". Sheets, who votes only to break a tie, said "This is not a perfect project," and "There is no perfect project."

Council members are holding listening sessions at the Chamber of Commerce from 23 to 25 September. The council is expected to take up the proposal at a special meeting on 28 September 2026. Councilman Steve Beardsley said: "We want your voices to be heard and look forward to some fruitful conversations."