Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 7

Salem City Council Imposes 120-Day Data Center Freeze on $5.1 Billion Verrus Project

Updated

Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 7

Salem City Council Imposes 120-Day Data Center Freeze on $5.1 Billion Verrus Project

Q: With the state land sale canceled, where will Verrus relocate its multi-billion dollar tech campus?

It is not known yet. Public reporting indicates Verrus has not announced a new location for the canceled Salem-area campus. Gov. Tina Kotek’s order stopped the state sale of the Mill Creek Corporate Center parcel tied to the project, removing a key piece of the site assembly. That makes the original “Oakline at Mill Creek” plan far more difficult, but it does not by itself identify where the company would go next. The available reporting suggests several possibilities rather than a confirmed relocation. Verrus could try to reconfigure the project onto privately controlled land in or near Salem, though that would still face the city’s temporary moratorium, public opposition, and normal land-use, utility and site-plan review. Some later reporting also indicates Verrus moved quickly to file an initial city application before the moratorium discussion, which may preserve a pathway for some version of the project, but that is not the same as announcing a new site. Outside Oregon, Verrus is also pursuing a separate, more advanced data center project in Lyon Township, Michigan. But that Michigan development, known as Project Flex, has been reported as a distinct project, not as the declared relocation site for the canceled Salem land deal. So the short answer is that Verrus has not publicly said where it will relocate the multi-billion-dollar tech campus, if it relocates it at all.

3 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Aug 7

A 120-day moratorium now blocks data center projects in Salem after the city council, following a second hearing this week, moved to halt progress on Verrus' proposed server farm.
The freeze followed intense public backlash over the $5.1 billion, 75-acre project, with residents objecting to secrecy around the plan and the city's non-disclosure agreement with the developer.
Verrus representatives left a July hearing early, saying they did not feel safe, after hundreds of residents protested and supporters of the project were jeered.
Council members also unanimously backed exploring a ban on developer NDAs and creating a data center task force, widening the fight from one project to Salem's broader approval process.