Metrobloks Martindale-Brightwood Approved
$500M, two-building, ~168,000 sq ft data-center campus at 2505 N. Sherman Ave. on the site of a long-abandoned drive-in theater, in a neighborhood with a documented history of lead-contaminated soil. Uses a closed-loop cooling system (water added once, then recirculated) and buys power from AES Indiana rather than the residential grid. MDC approved 3 variances + a rezoning 6-2 on April 1, 2026; City-County Council gave final rezoning approval May 4, 2026. Exempted from the Aug. 19, 2026 citywide moratorium as a previously-approved project. Residents' group Protect Martindale Brightwood said it was exploring legal options to challenge the approval. District councilor Ron Gibson's home was shot 13 times on April 7, 2026, days after he publicly backed the project; a note reading 'No Data Centers' was left at the scene.
Key facts
- Operator
- Metrobloks
- Owner
- Metrobloks
- Size
- 14 ac
- Location
- Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis), Indiana
- First proposed
- 2025-01-01
- Application filed
- 2025-01-01
- Hearing
- 2026-02-12
- Decided
- 2026-05-04
- Stage today
- Approved
Source
read 2026-09-02
What to do next
Next step: Approved — pivot from stopping it to a binding CBA: enforceable caps on noise, water and cost, plus a community benefit.
What has happened so far (7 events)
- 2026-01-15hearing
A scheduled MDC rezoning decision on the Metrobloks petition was delayed to allow for a further public hearing. · source - 2026-02-12hearing
The MDC hearing examiner recommended the Metrobloks data-center project for approval. · source - 2026-03-11coverage
The Indianapolis NAACP reversed its earlier opposition to the Metrobloks project. · source - 2026-04-01vote
The Metropolitan Development Commission approved three variances and a rezoning for the $500 million Metrobloks data center on a 6-2 vote, over objections from Martindale-Brightwood residents citing the area's industrial-contamination history. · source - 2026-04-07protest
District 8 Councilor Ron Gibson's home was shot 13 times overnight; a note reading 'No Data Centers' was left at his door, days after he publicly supported the Metrobloks approval. · source - 2026-05-04vote
The City-County Council approved the Metrobloks rezoning request; the same day, Councilor Jesse Brown's non-binding resolution urging a temporary stay on high-impact data-center approvals also passed. · source - 2026-08-19moratorium
Metrobloks was one of three already-approved Indianapolis projects explicitly exempted from the citywide data-center moratorium the MDC adopted 6-0. · source
Find the paper trail
Find the paper trail (0 filed · 12 places to look)
State environmental permits
Backup generators, water withdrawal and stormwater are permitted by the state, usually earlier and in more detail than anything filed locally.
- Indiana IDEM — Office of Air QualityThe program page: which permits this state requires, and the office that issues them.
- IDEM Virtual File CabinetSearchable public filings — search the operator, the shell LLC on the deed, and the address.
County & town filings
The rezoning application, site plan, traffic and noise studies, staff report and every revision.
- Search Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis) planning filingssearchPlanning departments post application files under many different names. Find the department, then ask the clerk for the application number — that number unlocks everything else.
- Search Martindale-Brightwood (Indianapolis) property records / GISsearchThe parcel record names the buying LLC and the sale date, which is what ties an anonymous filing to an operator.
Utility & grid records
The electricity request is filed with the grid operator and the utility long before the town hears about it — and states the real load.
- MISO (Midwest & Gulf) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- PJM Interconnection (Mid-Atlantic, Ohio Valley) — interconnection queueRequested megawatts, queue position and target in-service date. The MW here is the real number; the one at the town meeting is often phase one.
- Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission — docket searchSpecial contracts, large-load tariffs and rate cases are docketed here. Testimony and exhibits are public, and are usually more candid than the press release.
- FERC eLibraryFederal filings: transmission agreements, interconnection service agreements, and co-location disputes.
- Search the serving utility for a will-serve lettersearchThe will-serve or load-service letter is the utility's own written commitment. Ask the utility and the PUC for it by name — it is frequently the first document to exist.
Federal databases
Works anywhere, and covers the operator's record at its other sites.
- EPA ECHO facility searchEvery federally-reported air, water and waste permit at a facility, plus its inspection and violation history. Search by address or draw a radius around the site. This project's locality centres on 39.790, -86.130 — search that point with a 5-mile radius.
- EPA EnvirofactsThe same underlying records, queryable by county — useful for 'what else is permitted near this site' rather than one facility.
- EPA Facility Registry ServiceResolves the shell LLC on a permit to the facility it belongs to. Worth a look when the filing name means nothing locally.
These are places to look, not evidence that anything has been filed. Links were checked on 2026-08-21; search links are queries, not records. What to ask for.
Recent news
Automated news aggregation, not human-verified — follow each link to the original outlet. Part of the story tracker, 1 headline archived.
Around here
- Indianapolis (Marion County) community briefing — Enactedexpires 2027-12-31
- Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.
Other tracked projects in Indiana
- DC Blox Warren Township (Thunderbird Commerce Center) — Warren Township (Indianapolis) / Irvington, 8 mi Approved
- Meta Lebanon / LEAP Data Center Campus — Boone County, 25 mi Proposed
- Cloverdale Solar Farm (EnergyRe) — Putnam County, 40 mi Withdrawn
- Recore Digital AI data center inquiry — Grant County, 56 mi Rumored
- Project Riverjump (Marion) — Marion (Grant County), 58 mi Withdrawn
Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Metrobloks Martindale-Brightwood”, aigridwatch.com/projects/metrobloks-martindale-brightwood-in, retrieved 2026-10-11.
As of August 2026 (2m ago) · changes weekly — re-check before citing
A working set of identified proposals a community can track, not a census — most of the country's activity is not in here yet. Pennsylvania is the exception: its rows are synced from PA DEP's own data-center permit tracker, so the state's coverage is close to complete and carries the permit trail with it. **Each row carries its own provenance.** Rows showing a verification date link to reporting or the governing body's own record and were read on that date; rows marked *unverified* have no source on record — a lead to check, not a fact to cite. **Stage is derived, not asserted.** *Hearing scheduled*, *Awaiting decision*, *Approved* and *Withdrawn* are computed from each row's milestone dates on every rebuild, so a hearing date that has passed stops reading 'scheduled'. Hearings get moved and projects re-file under new names — treat a scheduled date as the earliest to act by, and confirm with the clerk before relying on it. Leads are mined into data/project_candidates.json and promoted here only after a human reads a primary source.
Part of the data center project tracker — open data, CC BY 4.0 (JSON · CSV).