Phoenix Investors outlines plan to convert former AMCO plant into data center; residents raise water, noise and health concerns

Phoenix Investors told a Michigan City Common Council workshop on July 24 that it plans to redevelop the former AMCO/Federal Mobile building on Royal Road into a data-center campus and related electrical yards, while council members and residents pressed the developer for more detail on power demand, generator emissions, noise and water use.

"Phoenix Investors is based out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin," said Patrick Edering, director of acquisition and leasing for Phoenix Investors, introducing the firm's national strategy of buying and repositioning large, single-tenant industrial properties. John Graham, who identified himself as Phoenix Investors' head of construction, said the company has been investing upfront capital to make large vacant buildings marketable and called the Royal Road site a "prime opportunity" for adaptive reuse.

The proposal discussed at the workshop would keep the existing building footprint, add electrical yards and a mechanical yard, and include a new substation fed from an existing industrial substation across Royal Road. Phoenix Investors said it has raised the building's roof to a 28-foot clear height and plans perimeter landscaping and buffering, including roughly 150–175 mixed trees and about 140–160 shrubs.

Why it matters: the project would convert a long-vacant industrial property into taxable value and employment but touches multiple municipal concerns — where the site sits in or near residential neighborhoods and schools; the electricity and water the facility would require; and community impacts from noise and emergency generators. The workshop was informational; no council vote or formal incentive approval took place.

Financial and job estimates cited Phoenix Investors presented an overview of projected city benefits it characterized as totaling about $26.1 million in several forms. In the company's summary cited at the workshop, funds would include $1,000,000 to the…