Mortenson, Kimley Horn and Minnesota Power outline proposed four‑building data center campus near Arrowhead substation in Hermantown

Dan Lesser of Mortenson Development told the Hermantown City Council that the presentation would provide technical detail to accompany a second reading of rezoning for a proposed data center campus east of Minnesota Power’s Arrowhead substation.

Brian Werteman, an engineer with Kimley Horn, said the site is at the southwest corner of Midway Road and Morris Thomas Road and described a campus plan with four data center buildings of about 300,000 square feet each (40–50 feet tall), two roughly 30,000‑square‑foot office buildings, and a 45,000‑square‑foot office/warehouse near the primary entrance. Werteman said the buildings are sited to preserve existing wetlands, particularly a substantial wetland complex in the southeast corner near a trout stream.

The team said it completed multiple studies informing the design: a field wetland delineation coordinated with city, county, the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; a threatened and endangered species review; a cultural and archaeological survey with the Fond du Lac tribe; a tree survey; a Phase I environmental site assessment; and noise modeling. "These are critical pieces of our local and national…