RED WING, Minn. —A Goodhue County judge has temporarily halted construction of a hyperscale data center at Pine Island. Judge Patrick Biren said she needs data from the corporate developer regarding local concerns that the project poses irreparable environmental risks. The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy sued the developer, Ryan Companies, about the project’s water usage, energy consumption, and noise pollution. Ryan is a Minneapolis-based agent for Google, which wants several hundred acres for energy-hungry AI super computers. The usual tactic has been for developers to seek zoning changes from local authorities and to impose non-disclosure requirements to keep negotiations secret. The secrecy, of course, raises citizen suspicions, especially because county boards and other zoning agencies seldom have the expertise to deal knowledgably with companies like Google and their agents like Ryan. Targeted sites for these data centers nationwide are mostly in rural areas with local elected officials who are out of their league even to pose the right questions.
Pine Island project
The Pine Island project is one of more than a dozen hyperscale data centers proposed in Minnesota. Ryan had planned to start Pine Island construction in July. An attorney for the non-profit Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Joy Anderson, said Ryan was putting the cart ahead of the horse: An environmental assessment needs be done furst. Judge Biren’s restraining order could be in place for months. Dates for hearing have yet to be scheduled.
Ryan Companies
Ryan is mostly a facilitator in warehouse and manufacturing facility development. Its specialties include land deals with local property owners and zoning authorities on behalf of major corporate clients that lack local contacts and without a feel for local legal ins and outs. In the end Ryan’s corporate clients would be tenants of the facilities.
Local incentives
Town-talk around Pine Island is that Ryan Companies has promised the project would create hundreds of jobs and generate millions in property tax revenue. About jobs, however, these would be mostly for the relatively short-term construction phase. Hyperscale data centers have small staffs for ongoing operations. About the tax base, hte typical pattern is for industrial developers to be granted a tax exemption fir period of years.