Project dossier · La Porte, Indiana

Microsoft La Porte Under construction

$1B, 245,000 sq ft data center in La Porte, Indiana. Under construction.

Key facts

Operator: Microsoft
Owner: Microsoft
Location: La Porte, Indiana
Stage today: Under construction

What to do next

Next step: Under construction — pull the approved conditions and permits and hold the builder to them; an expansion or a new building reopens the record.

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What has happened so far (12 events)

2024-06-04announcement
Gov. Eric Holcomb and Microsoft announced a $1 billion investment to build a 245,000 sq ft data center on 489 acres at Radius Industrial Park in La Porte, Indiana, projected to create up to 200 jobs by 2032. · source
2024-06-04incentive
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation committed a 35-year (extendable to 45-year) data center sales tax credit tied to a minimum $1 billion capital investment at the La Porte site. · source
2026-01-13incentive
Microsoft President Brad Smith unveiled a national Community-First AI Infrastructure Plan pledging Microsoft would no longer seek local property tax abatements — a policy shift that prompted renegotiation of the La Porte tax deal. · source
2026-03-01construction
Microsoft began site preparation work on the La Porte campus, with the first three data center buildings under construction through end of 2027 and full buildout expected by 2029. · source
2026-03-04incentive
La Porte and the school corporation approved a revised tax agreement in which Microsoft will pay its full property tax obligation, with 15% dedicated to La Porte Community School Corporation for 20 years. · source
2026-04-13hearing
La Porte City Council held a hearing on annexing more than 1,000 acres of farmland adjacent to the existing Microsoft site for a second data center campus; officials cited a lack of transparency while some residents supported the jobs. · source
2026-04-21public-comment
Microsoft held a community information session at the La Porte Civic Auditorium attended by hundreds; residents raised concerns about water usage, noise (including low-frequency vibrations), lighting/visual impact, and being excluded from earlier decisions. · source
2026-05-06vote
LaPorte County commissioners voted unanimously to advance a new data center ordinance setting setbacks, noise limits, and water-usage caps and restricting data centers to industrial-zoned land. · source
2026-05-13rezoning
The La Porte Plan Commission approved rezoning roughly 1,300 acres near Boyd Boulevard and U.S. 35 from agricultural to manufacturing use for Microsoft expansion. · source
2026-05-18rezoning
La Porte Common Council unanimously approved final annexation and rezoning of more than 1,000 additional acres in Pleasant Township for light industrial/manufacturing use, nearly tripling the planned Microsoft campus to support up to 17 total data center buildings. · source
2026-06-17construction
Microsoft held a groundbreaking ceremony for the $1 billion La Porte campus expansion; Mayor Tom Dermody called it a defining moment for the community. · source
2026-06-17utility
NIPSCO confirmed it is working directly with Microsoft to supply power for the expanded La Porte campus, including a new substation as part of the first construction phase. · 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 La Porte 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 La Porte 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.
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.

Around here

Indiana briefing — rates, grid carbon, PUC contacts.

Other tracked projects in Indiana

AWS Northern Indiana expansion (New Carlisle) — New Carlisle (St. Joseph County) Operating
Abei Energy data center proposal (rezoning request) — Starke County Blocked by ban
Anthropic-Amazon New Carlisle — New Carlisle Operating
Cloverdale Solar Farm (EnergyRe) — Putnam County Withdrawn
DC Blox Warren Township (Thunderbird Commerce Center) — Warren Township (Indianapolis) / Irvington Approved

Cite this page: GridWatch AI, “Microsoft La Porte”, aigridwatch.com/projects/microsoft-la-porte-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).