The Microsoft EKI campus at business strength: the purchase and development course

2024–2026 · CLEVELAND ROAD AT CURRANT ROAD

The largest business transaction in this ground's history is the sale of its oldest business: in May 2024 the St. Joseph County Council approved the rezoning of more than 900 acres of the St. Joseph's Farm ground — the Holy Cross farm carried in this section's third entry — for a Microsoft data-center campus. The purchase price the Tribune's sequence gives is $77.5 million for some 929 acres, and the date of the purchase the record gives two ways, printed here as it gives them: the Tribune's account puts the purchase in June 2024, after the May rezoning; a secondary data-center summary dates the acquisition to May 2024. The two addresses the record attaches to the campus print likewise unmerged: the purchase was also reported at 52682 Currant Road, while the campus's permit address — in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's public notice of the fall of 2026 — is 12501 Cleveland Road, Granger, IN 46530. The deed-level seller of the 929 acres the press identifies only by the land's name — "formerly St. Joe Farm" — and the recorder's instrument that would name the selling entity is registered as GAP-BIZ-3; a second, documented parcel stands apart from it: in May 2025 a further 40 acres at Cleveland and Currant roads were rezoned, the Area Plan Commission recommending 6–1, and the trade record (Data Center Dynamics) states that parcel "is currently owned by Heritage Land Operations LLC." The two holdings are not to be merged, and this entry does not merge them.

The development course runs on the county's own terms, which are unusual and printed as officials stated them: Microsoft sought no tax abatements or exemptions (county economic development director Bill Schalliol, in the commissioners' update of February 17, 2026); some 250–300 acres are to sit in a conservation easement and green zone; power comes from AEP, not NIPSCO. The utilities course was its own negotiation: an August 2024 settlement of the Mishawaka-versus-county water and sewer dispute put Mishawaka in as supplier, Microsoft paying for the extensions and upgrades — up to some $60 million of utility work — with a $12.6 million initial engineering and design agreement; on October 6, 2026, the county Redevelopment Commission and Board of Commissioners voted a $65 million memorandum of understanding covering water, sewer, and road work (Veterans Parkway; Cleveland, Douglas, and Bittersweet roads) — the one aggregator figure of "$53–55 million" that circulates against it is printed here as a conflict and does not govern. The tax-increment question stayed open through the fall of 2026: a proposed Capital Avenue Economic Development Area of some 4,000–4,600 acres, expanding the roughly 600-acre AM General area, would take in the Microsoft ground; the council hearing expected September 22, 2026, was pushed back with no new date set, and the same day the county council voted 6–3 for a preliminary ban on further hyperscale data centers — the campus grandfathered, the door barred behind it.

The build itself entered design in 2026: Microsoft spokesman Jonathan Noble put site preparation later in 2026 and vertical construction in 2027 (Tribune, June 23, 2026), with some 300 permanent jobs on the county officials' figure. The air permit names the thing precisely: Stantec Consulting's June 2026 construction-permit application to IDEM describes six data-center buildings, EKI001 through EKI006, plus a Campus Amenities Building, with emergency generators — the application printing the site ZIP as 46350, its own error against Granger's 46530 — and IDEM's preliminary findings issue the campus a FESOP numbered F 141-50527-00655, public comment running October 26 to November 25, 2026. The Drainage Board's November 2, 2026 approval of construction dewatering — up to 200,000 gallons an hour into Willow Creek and Juday Creek, mid-December 2026 to early April 2027 — is the project's first physical act in the county record. The letters EKI are Microsoft's own permit name for the campus; nothing in the record reached expands them, and this entry does not guess. The ground's opposition — a first community event on May 19, 2026, at Century Center, residents pressing a "fair-share agreement" campaign through We Make Indiana — belongs to the campus's public course, and the separate, roughly 914-acre business-technology rezoning near Huckleberry and Gordon roads, on other old St. Joe Farm ground in Mishawaka and tied in trade reporting to an unconfirmed Amazon interest through the buyer "Razor5," is Mishawaka's record: boundary-printed here at pointer size, never merged with EKI.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune sequence, 2024–2026: county council rezoning of 900+ acres (May 2024); purchase, $77.5 million, ~929 acres (June 2024); Mishawaka water/sewer settlement (August 2024); 40-acre rezoning (May 2025); commissioners' update (Feb. 17, 2026; Schalliol; no abatements sought); design phase and construction course (June 23, 2026; Noble); TIF hearing postponement and 6–3 preliminary ban vote (Sept. 22, 2026).
2. Secondary data-center summary (kenya-today, undated aggregation): acquisition dated May 2024 — the date conflict as printed.
3. Data Center Dynamics: the 40-acre Cleveland-and-Currant parcel "currently owned by Heritage Land Operations LLC"; the Mishawaka Huckleberry/Gordon rezoning and the "Razor5" buyer, Amazon link unconfirmed.
4. Indiana Department of Environmental Management: public notice of preliminary findings, FESOP No. F 141-50527-00655, "Microsoft EKI Campus, located at 12501 Cleveland Road, Granger, IN 46530," comment period October 26–November 25, 2026; Stantec Consulting air-permit application, June 2026 (buildings EKI001–EKI006 and Campus Amenities Building; ZIP printed 46350 in the application).
5. County record as reported, fall 2026: $65M MOU (Oct. 6, 2026); $12.6M engineering agreement; up to ~$60M utility work; one aggregator's "$53–55 million" figure printed as a conflict; Drainage Board dewatering approval (Nov. 2, 2026); ~300 permanent jobs (county officials' figure); easement 250–300 acres; AEP service.