Document sheds light on possible $11 billion Amazon investment near South Bend

The construction cost for a large development near New Carlisle — in what may be a massive data center — is estimated at $11 billion, according to documents that also shed light on the number of jobs it would offer and the pay.

The project may be the largest single investment in Indiana history.

The actual corporation that would build on farmland is still hidden behind the name Razor5 LLC. As The Tribune has reported, this could be part of a massive data center for a large national corporation, possibly Amazon Web Services.

Razor5's decision to locate in the county is not a done deal yet, Bill Schalliol, the county’s executive director of economic development, said Tuesday. Nor has the land been purchased. He said the company is still considering other sites elsewhere in the country as it likewise weighs incentives such as tax abatements.

The company estimates that it would invest about $11 billion in a series of buildings at the site, according to a document filed with St. Joseph County for a possible tax abatement.

That would be larger than the roughly $3.5 billion that General Motors and Samsung SDI are spending as they've begun building an electric vehicle battery plant nearby. It also is larger than the recently announced investment of $3.87 billion by SK hynix Inc. to build an advanced packaging fabrication and research and development facility in West Lafayette for artificial intelligence products.

At “full development,” the document says, Razor5's project would employ about 400 full-time positions at 125% of the average county wage of $24.59, or $30.74 per hour.

Other permanent full-time positions would be staffed by third-party contractors who’d work on site, the document says.

“Due to the scale of the Project,” the document states as a caveat, “it is reasonably expected that various unknown contingencies may cause actual results to vary from any of the estimates stated above.”

The company also estimates that the project would start this year.

As The Tribune has reported, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Google and Meta have been building such data centers across the country, including in the Midwest. AWS officials have reportedly been seen around St. Joseph County in recent months to gather information. An AWS spokeswoman has refused to either confirm or deny whether the company plans to build a data center here.

The proposed tax abatement came to the St. Joseph County Council on Tuesday, April 9, for a first reading, a procedural move so that the resolution could be assigned to a council committee for discussion.

It's a declaratory resolution that would come to the council for a vote as early as its meeting on May 14, though the council's final decision on any tax abatement would be in a confirming resolution, likely to be voted on in June.

Razor5 intends to use two parcels of land near New Carlisle.

One is a 640-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Indiana 2 and Strawberry Road, which puts it directly east of the Navistar Proving Grounds and nearly a half mile east of Bendix Woods County Park. To enable that parcel’s sale and development, the council recently voted to rezone that parcel from agricultural to industrial and to add it to the overlay district for the Indiana Enterprise Center.

March 13, 2024: Council votes 8-1 to rezone farmland near New Carlisle for potential data center

The other parcel is 280 acres southwest of Edison Road and Larrison Drive, sitting north of the EV battery plant that is under construction by General Motors and Samsung SDI. 

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Document: Possible Amazon project near South Bend could be worth $11B