Despite
Microsoft looking to
increase the size of its Mount Pleasant data center campus from 315 acres to 1,345 acres, there are no solid plans yet as to how that land will be used.
During a village meeting held Monday, representatives from Microsoft said master plans are still in the works given the sheer size of the parcels of land the company is looking to acquire.
“We are still evolving on a fair number of our plans for exactly what the master plan would look like and what a buildout would be,” said
A.J. Steinbrecher, Microsoft’s director of land acquisition for North America.
Representatives from Microsoft declined to speak with the media Monday afternoon.
A Friday press release sent on behalf of village and county officials said Microsoft plans to invest “billions of dollars” over the next decade on buildings, support structures, systems and equipment.
If a new development agreement is approved by the Mount Pleasant Village Board, Microsoft would purchase 630 of the 1,030 addition acres of land from the village for approximately $100 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of the year. Those acres are located within Area II and Area III of TID #5, the tax incremental financing district created for the Foxconn project.
Foxconn will release its developer acquisition rights to the land in Area II and Area III.
The remaining 400 acres would be bought from the Creuziger family, which operates a pumpkin farm, in a sale that is also expected to close by the end of the year.
“I have found that Microsoft is very, very loathe to make promises or make forecasts,” said
Alan Marcuvitz, attorney for the village. “They are committed to doing it and that’s what they’re doing.”
When asked if the lack of a complete master plan should cause the village concern, Marcuvitz answered with a resounding "no."
“I see Microsoft as being in the technology business. They’re not in the land business. For someone to come in today and spend $100 million to buy land…north of $100 million is a pretty good indication that they’re serious,” he said.
He guessed the site could be under active construction for at least the next ten years.
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From left are: Claude Lois, Alan Marcuvitz and Jim Paetsch during a Monday village of Mount Pleasant meeting,[/caption]
Claude Lois, project director for Mount Pleasant's TID 5, pointed out the construction Microsoft has already started within Area III wasn’t originally slated to start until 2026, putting the company several years ahead of schedule. That 315-acre site was purchased by Microsoft for $50 million earlier this year.
The village will retain the right to purchase the additional land back from Microsoft if they don’t meet agreed upon building standards. For example, the company will be expected to begin construction on its second building by 2030.
An amendment to the agreement reached between Microsoft and the village in 2023 will also be updated to say the company must construct a minimum of four buildings on the entirety of land it seeks to acquire.
Microsoft has guaranteed that the assessed value of its Mount Pleasant data center will be at least $1.4 billion by Jan. 1 of 2028.
In addition, Foxconn is still required to pay property taxes based on $1.4 billion of assessed value, regardless of the actual value of its Mount Pleasant campus.
Following approval of Microsoft’s new plans, the village could feasibly sunset TID 5 by the year 2037, which is 13 years earlier than expected.
As for what caused the change in Microsoft’s initial plans,
Jim Paetsch, senior vice president and executive director of the Milwaukee 7, said the $1.2 million of public infrastructure investment made since 2017 to help ready the development site aided in Microsoft’s decision to expand.
“For companies like Microsoft, one of the big things they’re concerned about is timing risk,” said Paetsch. “If you can’t deliver the site at the time that they need it, there’s some risk for a company like that, which can get you kicked out of the selection process.”
He added that geographically, the development just made sense for Microsoft. Being in between Milwaukee and Chicago and exposed to a region of nearly 11 million people was also a deciding factor, according to Paetsch.
“As far as the broader trajectory of the (business) park, we expect this to play put over several years,” he said. “As you heard from A.J., they’re still going through their internal planning in terms of what’s the cadence that they’ll move from part of the site to the next.”
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Map of the Foxconn tax increment financing district (TID #5) in Mount Pleasant.[/caption]
