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Microsoft Files for Second LaPorte Data Center on 1,200 Acres of Adjacent Farmland — May 18 Annexation Vote in Indiana
IN
Local Government / Hyperscaler Buildout
April 26, 2026
Source: USA TODAY Network — South Bend Tribune (carried by Indianapolis Star)
Microsoft has revealed plans for a second data-center campus on 1,200 acres of farmland directly adjacent to the data center it has already begun building in LaPorte, Indiana. The expansion hinges on the LaPorte city council approving the landowners' request to absorb the 1,200 acres into the city — making it city land the city can govern, tax, and serve — so the property can be sold to Microsoft. The South Bend Tribune reports the council, after a heavily attended public hearing on April 13, scheduled the annexation vote for May 18.
The first LaPorte campus is already under construction, governed by a 20-year property-tax agreement. Acreage, water demand, peak load, and final tax framework for the second campus have not been disclosed in public council filings. Per the South Bend Tribune, Councilman Tim Franke said the city will likely never be in such a favorable position again, given the tens of millions of dollars projected annually in property-tax revenue under the first campus's 20-year agreement. (The Tribune presents this as paraphrase rather than a direct quote; the underlying revenue projection is the developer's representation, adopted by Franke.)
What's not yet on the record. Water demand can be designed two ways: traditional evaporative cooling (high water use, cheaper to build) or air / closed-loop liquid cooling (lower water use, more expensive to build). Microsoft set a 2020 corporate goal of being "water-positive” by 2030 and reports an 80%+ reduction in data-center water intensity since the early-2000s. In August 2024 Microsoft launched a new closed-loop cooling design that consumes zero water for cooling, deployed first at Zaragoza, Spain. Whether the second LaPorte campus uses the closed-loop / zero-water design or the older evaporative model has not been disclosed. Peak load and transmission cost-allocation are also unresolved. NIPSCO is the relevant retail utility for LaPorte. Whether the load is within NIPSCO's existing capacity or requires transmission upgrades from MISO is the determinative question for whether other ratepayers absorb infrastructure costs. Permanent on-site headcount is the third unresolved question. Hyperscale data centers generally operate with very small permanent staffs. Industry-standard ratios place hyperscale permanent on-site employment at roughly 0.05–0.15 jobs per million dollars invested.
Indiana's annexation process gives the council formal authority to require disclosures as a condition of approval. That authority is most usable in the days before the vote, not after.
What You Can Do
Attend the May 18 LaPorte City Council meeting at City Hall, 801 Michigan Avenue. Confirm agenda and time at cityoflaporte.com. Public comment is typically a few minutes per speaker, so prepare written comment in advance.
Submit specific written questions before May 18. The questions most likely to surface useful disclosure: projected peak load in MW; whether load is within NIPSCO's existing capacity or requires transmission upgrades; who pays for any required upgrades; projected water demand (gallons per day, both withdrawals and consumptive); water source; permanent on-site headcount commitment in writing; local-hire percentage and any clawback provisions; whether any NDA exists between LaPorte officials, staff, or contractors and Microsoft or its representatives.
Compare the second-campus pitch to the first campus's actual paperwork. Indiana APRA has a seven-business-day response window. Before May 18, request the first-campus annexation ordinance and property-tax-abatement schedule from the city clerk. The actual abatement schedule will tell you whether Councilman Franke's “tens of millions” projection is consistent with what was signed for campus #1.
Community Takeaway
A 1,200-acre second campus, three months after the first broke ground, arrives with a built-in argument: we already have the relationship, we already have the infrastructure, the tax revenue is already projected, this is the moment to lock in the next phase. It is the argument every community in Microsoft's, Amazon's, Google's, and Meta's expansion footprints is about to receive. LaPorte is currently the test case for what the answer looks like under Indiana's annexation framework.
The structural problem the May 18 vote presents is that almost everything material about the second campus — peak load, water demand, permanent headcount, who pays for transmission upgrades, local-hire commitments — is not yet on the public record. The vote is on annexation, which is the legal precondition for the sale, but annexation votes typically don't require those substantive disclosures. Once annexation goes through, the city's leverage to require those disclosures drops sharply. The questions in “What You Can Do,” asked before May 18 and recorded in writing, change the procedural posture of the vote. Whether they are asked is the determinative question for LaPorte residents.
Source: USA TODAY Network — South Bend Tribune (carried by Indianapolis Star), April 26, 2026.