Why developers come here
Until 2025 Michigan had almost no hyperscale activity. That changed when the state extended and expanded its data center sales tax exemption, and when DTE Energy and Consumers Energy signaled they would build generation for large customers. Within a year, Related Digital and Oracle announced the $16 billion, 1,400 MW Stargate campus in Saline Township, Google and DTE announced a roughly 1,000 MW campus in Van Buren Township, and proposals appeared in Lyon, Frenchtown, Pavilion, Augusta, and Howell townships.
The draw is a cool climate, abundant surface and ground water, large farm parcels within an hour of Detroit’s fiber and airport, a manufacturing workforce, and two large vertically integrated utilities that can commit to serve. Industrial power averaged 8.26 cents per kWh in 2024 according to EIA, the highest of the Great Lakes states other than Wisconsin.
Incentives
- Sales and use tax exemption. Public Act 207 of 2024 (HB 4906, signed January 17, 2025) and its companion SB 237 (effective March 30, 2025) exempt qualifying purchases from Michigan’s 6 percent sales and use taxes. The existing exemption for qualified (colocation) data centers was extended through December 31, 2050. A new “enterprise data center” category covers construction materials, servers, cooling and power equipment, and software for a single-user facility that invests at least $250 million, creates at least 30 jobs paying 150 percent or more of the regional median wage, achieves a recognized green building certification within three years, and sources 90 percent of its electricity from clean or renewable energy. Enterprise exemptions run through 2050, or through December 31, 2065 on brownfield sites or former industrial power plant properties. Reports indicate no new enterprise certificates will be issued after December 31, 2029. The Michigan Strategic Fund administers certification.
- Local property tax. Townships and cities grant industrial facilities (PA 198) abatements and other local incentives; Van Buren Township approved about $125 million in local tax breaks for Google’s project in May 2026.
- 2026 legislation. Bills to repeal the exemption (HB 5396 and 5397) and to impose a statewide moratorium until April 1, 2027 (HB 5594 to 5596 and SB 1018 to 1020) were introduced with bipartisan sponsors. Governor Whitmer has said she would veto a moratorium and instead released a voluntary Michigan Affordable and Responsible Growth Action Plan in July 2026 asking companies to pledge that residents will not pay data center energy costs, and asked the legislature to codify the MPSC’s tariff protections. Senate Democrats introduced a separate eight-bill regulatory package. None had passed as of September 2026.
Power
The Lower Peninsula is in MISO; Indiana Michigan Power’s southwest Michigan territory is in PJM. Michigan’s two dominant utilities are regulated by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC), and both now operate under large-load rules.
For Consumers Energy, the MPSC approved amended terms on November 6, 2025 (Case U-21859) for customers of 100 MW or more, or 100 MW aggregated across sites of at least 20 MW under common ownership: a minimum initial contract term of 15 years and a minimum billing demand of 80 percent of contracted capacity. For DTE, the MPSC on December 18, 2025 (Case U-21990) approved special contracts for the 1,400 MW Saline Township campus on an expedited basis, with a power supply agreement of about 19 years, an 80 percent minimum billing demand, cost tracking so the data center alone pays its costs, priority curtailment of the data center in shortages, a cost allocation study in DTE’s next rate case, and a requirement that DTE file a generally applicable large-load tariff within 90 days. The attorney general’s attempts to reopen the DTE contracts were rejected in March 2026. For Google’s Van Buren project, DTE filed a full contested case and asked for a decision by September 10, 2026. Water is a live issue: Van Buren Township’s own materials estimate 2 million to 3.6 million gallons a day for the Google site.
Where the projects are
Washtenaw County (Saline Township) and Wayne County (Van Buren Township) hold the two announced gigawatt campuses. Proposals cluster in southeast Michigan’s exurban townships (Lyon in Oakland County, Frenchtown in Monroe County, Howell in Livingston County) and near Kalamazoo (Pavilion Township). The Upper Peninsula has no announced hyperscale activity.
Local politics
Michigan has more local moratoria than any state, more than 20 by mid-2026, including Howell Township, Sterling Heights, Pontiac, and Warren. Saline Township is the defining case: the board voted 4-1 in September 2025 against rezoning 575 acres of farmland, Related Digital and the landowners sued within days claiming exclusionary zoning, the township settled under a consent judgment allowing the project without a rezoning, and construction began in November 2025. A resident’s attempt to intervene was rejected in February 2026, and the board later rescinded the rezoning to head off a referendum, which residents said left them no vote. Howell Township residents forced a developer to withdraw a $1 billion proposal in December 2025. In Van Buren Township more than 1,500 residents petitioned against Google’s project, which the planning commission nonetheless advanced 5-2. Objections are farmland loss, private-well water, power bills, noise, and closed-door negotiations. Polling cited by state press shows broad statewide opposition, and the issue has become central to the 2026 gubernatorial race.
Supporters point to union construction jobs (2,500 at Saline), community benefit payments (about $14 million at Saline, including $4 million for farmland preservation), utility claims of rate benefits from spreading fixed costs, and reuse of industrial and brownfield land.
What a landowner should know
Developers want 250 to 1,000 acres near a DTE or Consumers 120 kV or 345 kV corridor, and both announced campuses were assembled from multiple farm parcels under option agreements. Michigan townships control zoning and most agricultural land is not zoned for this use, so the rezoning or planned-unit-development process is the central risk; the Saline case shows developers may sue under Michigan’s exclusionary zoning doctrine if a township refuses, which can make a township more cautious about talking to landowners. Ask whether the buyer will pursue a rezoning, a consent judgment, or a conditional rezoning, and whether the option survives a moratorium. The enterprise exemption’s 2029 certification deadline drives developer timelines. The state contact is the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which handles enterprise data center certification through the Michigan Strategic Fund. Michigan has no state disclosure requirement for data center land contracts; a pending Senate bill would restrict NDAs with local officials.