Why developers come here
Ohio’s pitch for a decade was simple: flat land along the I-70 and I-71 corridors east of Columbus, AEP Ohio’s 765 kV backbone, the lowest industrial power price in the Great Lakes region (7.10 cents per kWh in 2024 per EIA), a state sales tax exemption that could reach 100 percent for 15 years or more, and a city, New Albany, that built a business park designed for hyperscalers. Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft all built in Licking, Franklin, and Delaware counties as a result, and Meta’s roughly 1,000 MW Prometheus campus in New Albany is one of the largest single builds in the country.
Northeast Ohio is now a second front. SoftBank and OpenAI’s Stargate Lordstown site in Trumbull County reuses industrial land and existing FirstEnergy infrastructure, and Appalachian counties are courting projects for the tax base. The state remains attractive on fundamentals, but 2026 has made the incentive picture far less certain.
Incentives
- Sales and use tax exemption. Ohio Revised Code Section 122.175 allows the Ohio Tax Credit Authority (TCA) to grant an exemption on data center equipment, cooling systems, equipment that generates or distributes electricity for the facility, and construction materials. Qualification requires at least $100 million of investment over three consecutive years and at least $1.5 million in annual payroll at the site beginning 25 months after the agreement. The TCA sets the percentage and term; recent awards have ranged from 50 percent for 10 years (for example, Vantage’s $2.1 billion Millersport project in Fairfield County) to 100 percent for 15 years.
- Cost and pause. The exemption cost about $1.6 billion in 2025 against an original estimate of $136 million. On the governor’s direction, the TCA stopped considering new data center exemption requests effective June 1, 2026 while a bipartisan Joint Data Center Committee (six Republicans, two Democrats) studies the industry. Existing agreements were not affected. The legislature had tried to limit the exemption in the HB 96 budget in 2025; the governor vetoed that provision.
- Pending bills. HB 646 would create a Data Center Study Commission, cut the exemption to 50 percent, require water-use reporting, make NDAs public records, and require large centers to offset grid consumption; it passed the House and stalled in the Senate. HB 706 and SB 378 target utility cost-shifting, HB 957 would bar new exemptions outright, and SB 381 would require PUCO approval before large connections. None had become law as of September 2026.
- Local property tax. Community Reinvestment Area and enterprise zone abatements are negotiated locally; New Albany pairs them with guaranteed minimum payments through TIF, New Community Authority charges, and PILOT payments.
Power
Ohio is fully inside PJM, whose capacity price hit its $333.44 per MW-day cap in the latest auction, with a backstop auction scheduled for September 2026. PJM has said large loads that do not bring their own generation by June 2027 will be first in line for curtailment.
AEP Ohio, which serves the Columbus market, has the country’s most-cited data center tariff. Approved by PUCO on July 9, 2025, it applies to new or expanded data center loads above 25 MW (1 MW for mobile data centers) and requires payment for at least 85 percent of subscribed capacity whether used or not, after a four-year ramp, over a 12-year agreement (four years of ramp plus eight years of minimum commitment). Early termination triggers an exit fee equal to three years of minimum charges, and applicants must prove financial viability; smaller and mid-sized centers get a sliding scale. AEP reported about 600 MW of signed data center load in central Ohio in 2024, a projection of 5 GW by 2030, and preliminary requests of more than 30,000 MW at 90 sites. The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association has challenged the tariff, arguing it should not apply to manufacturers with on-site computing. FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities serve Lordstown; PUCO has not yet adopted a statewide large-load rule.
Where the projects are
Licking County (New Albany, Johnstown, Heath, Hebron) is the core, with Meta Prometheus and the Cologix Columbus expansion among tracked projects, followed by Delaware, Franklin, Fairfield, and Union counties. Trumbull County hosts Stargate Lordstown. Proposals are spreading to Pickaway, Madison, and Appalachian counties.
Local politics
Roughly 18 Ohio municipalities had enacted or were considering moratoria by early 2026. Lordstown banned data centers in November 2025, then converted the ban to a 180-day moratorium after developer Bristolville 25 LLC, proposing a $3.6 billion, 133-acre project, sued in the Ohio Supreme Court. Vienna Township is using its pause to write noise and megawatt limits into zoning; St. Albans Township in Licking County banned them; Ashville and South Bloomfield residents organized against proposals. Complaints center on noise, utility bills, wastewater, farmland, and the cost of the state exemption. A citizen initiative to prohibit data centers was gathering signatures for the November 2026 ballot.
New Albany is the clearest case of a welcome: the city reports $10 million in community development charge revenue in 2024 and one hyperscaler generating income tax equal to $178 million of payroll, with minimum payments guaranteed for the life of each abatement. Jerome Township approved permits after its own moratorium expired.
What a landowner should know
Central Ohio developers typically look for 200 to 1,000 acres within a few miles of an AEP 138 kV or 345 kV line, and many assemble farmland through option agreements with 12 to 24 month terms and extension payments. Townships hold zoning in unincorporated Ohio, and annexation to a city with a business park is a common step, so ask whether the buyer intends to annex. With the state exemption paused, a developer’s underwriting may depend on a legislative outcome; ask how the option price changes if no exemption is granted. Under the AEP tariff the operator, not the landowner, carries the minimum-take obligation, but a project that cannot get a PUCO-compliant service agreement may not close. State contacts are the Ohio Department of Development and JobsOhio. Ohio has no statewide disclosure rule for data center land deals, and NDAs are common; HB 646 and HB 695 would change that for public officials.