When city officials approved the Google data center for southeast Fort Wayne, they agreed to a somewhat unusual tax abatement. Fort Wayne community development director Jonathan Leist explains;
"We knew we were up against some other locations, some other states, so we wanted to be competitive. And so rather than our traditional phase in which has a lower amount in the beginning of taxes paid and a higher amount abated, the company, they were comfortable, and we were comfortable with a 50% kind of across the board, which actually ends up being about the same amount as you would get on a 10 year.”
That means that in the year 2025, it changed how the property was evaluated and Google is expected to pay $1 million in property taxes this year. In an area of the city that’s already facing a $3 million cut in city investments, that $1 million is significant.
And, at the end of the full build on the property, Google will generate about $5.9 million per year in property taxes, according to Leist.
“So in this case, a very large investment," he said. "Larger than probably anything we had seen at least in the last five years, for sure, probably 10 years or more.”
In the nearly two years since the project was approved, Google has invested money through grants and donations into the community.
In April of 2024, the data center broke ground and, at that groundbreaking, announced initial investments to the Fort Wayne Early Learning Center and Just Neighbors Interfaith Homeless Network.
In October of this year, the Allen County Public Library received a $35,000 grant from Google for the Rolland Center for Lincoln Research.
Bryce Gustafson, program organizer with Citizens Action Coalition, says companies should give back to the communities they’re building in, but he questioned if what they’re giving is enough.
“I don’t begrudge that but, also, you have to take into account how much money they’re gonna save at the state-level through state sales tax exemptions," Gustafson said. "It would be great to have those numbers to compare because in some situations I’ve seen where ‘we’re gonna give half a million dollars a year here,’ or ‘a million dollars there.’ In the grand scheme of things that’s a nickel to them.”
The environmental risks that data centers bring
With the benefit of economic impact comes potential environmental risks.
In Fort Wayne, the Google data center’s developer’s original plan
included 34 emergency diesel generators and took about three and three-quarters acres in wetlands. This year, developers were approved to take nearly 10 additional wetlands. They’ve more than quadrupled their request for diesel generators, now asking for an additional 143.
“Eighteen months ago, they knew, or should have known, at that time, that that was not enough to sustain their operations. Which means they submitted something that is in bad faith at best," Gina Burgess said.
The Google data center intends to use about 13 wetlands, which means destroying them and rebuilding them elsewhere. But does this wetland mitigation really cause no harm? It's not that simple. Constructed wetlands take a while to get established, don't always end up with the same ecosystems at the destroyed ones and can lead to more CO2 in the air.
Burgess showed up to speak at the hearing with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management about the request for more generators.
About 75 people spoke at that meeting, which took place in mid-November, but more than a hundred signed up to speak before the meeting ran out of time.
Every single person who spoke encouraged IDEM to deny the permit.
Resident Danielle Doepke spoke specifically about the health risks the diesel generators pose.
“Diesel exhaust has been classified as a group one carcinogen by internation and national organizations, meaning it is a definite cause of cancer in human," Doepke said. "Studies have found links between diesel exhaust and cancers of the lung, bladder, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, as well as blood cancers like lymphomas and leukemias."
Residents, especially those who live on the south side, expressed concern about air pollution from the generators. Designated as emergency generators, they are only allowed to run them 100 hours a year, about four total days.
Find part three of this series here.
