Michigan City
JTNWI is supporting the community in pushing back against the Project Maize data center, engaging in door-to-door canvassing and petitioning, hosting community activities and actions, and mobilizing residents for public meetings and hearings, including the recent Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s public meeting on the facility’s emergency diesel generator air permit.
About the google project Maize data center
Quick Facts
Data Center Name: Project Maize (a $832 million project)
Developer: Phoenix Investors LLC/Phoenix Construction
End-user: Lavender Fields Holdings LLC, Google’s shell corporation (Google has not formally stepped forward as the end-user and operator of the facility)
Address: 402 Royal Road, Michigan City, IN 46360
Size: 67 acres, 400,000 square-foot building
Generation: Estimated 300 megawatts of purchased power from NIPSCO for phase 1
Status: Under construction
Permits & Agreements
All other permits can be found on the City of Michigan City’s webpage.
Tax Abatement Resolutions
Tax abatement resolutions approved on September 2, 2025, by the Michigan City Common Council.
Emergency Diesel Generators Air Permit
New Source Construction and Part 70 Operating Permit, 70 diesel emergency generators at 198.5 MW capacity for Phase 1, approved on February 16, 2026, by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
community Issues Spotlight
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The Project Maize data center is being developed on a brownfield site that poses a public health threat. The data center is under construction on a former windshield wiper manufacturing plant site, Federal-Mogul, with existing contamination from metals, acids, and solvents used on-site, including trichloroethylene (TCE), a carcinogen linked to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney and liver damage, nervous system disruption, and cancer, historically present at levels up to 28,000 times the safe limit at the property. The project is being constructed within a one-mile radius of neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and natural areas susceptible to the impacts from the site’s existing contamination.
The project’s construction has already led to violations by the State of Indiana. The disturbance of soil at the site and its transport off-site for construction have triggered violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act due to the failure to properly administer the Uncontaminated Soil Policy, issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management on October 9, 2025. These violations have raised substantial concerns among nearby residents, who are already enduring 24/7 noise and light pollution from the facility’s construction.
Further exacerbating this issue is the facility’s new permit to operate dirty and outdated diesel emergency generators. Following a public meeting on the permit on December 9, 2025, despite the public’s pleas to extend the public comment period, on February 16, 2026, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued the facility’s New Source Construction and Part 70 Operating Permit, an air permit that will allow Lavender Fields Holdings LLC, Google’s shell corporation, to operate a total of 70 diesel emergency generators for phase 1 of the project with no modern pollution controls and self-monitoring and reporting its emissions. It is estimated that these generators, of which the engine specifications have been withheld and classified as trade secret, could emit 1,300-2,100 tons of CO₂/year. Moreover, when backup generators run, they emit air pollutants harmful to human health, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, with some facilities already releasing 30% or more of their permitted emissions, rivaling those of nearby power plants. The addition of these emergency diesel generators poses a cumulative impact for the people of Michigan City, who already live in the shadow of the Michigan City Generating Station, a century-old coal plant on the shores of Lake Michigan.
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The claims Project Maize site hires a majority of local, union labor, have been challenged, indicating that many out-of-state, non-union workers are employed at the facility. Phoenix Investors has not put forth a project labor agreement, a collective bargaining agreement with labor unions that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project. A project labor agreement should be central to any project, which has further seeded distrust about the site’s development.
The data center was also under investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration after a worker fell from the roof on October 9, 2025, according to police body cam footage who potentially fell 70 feet and is believed to be undocumented (video is available here: viewer discretion is advised), alongside another worker who was hurt on December 16, 2025, and is fighting to receive workers’ compensation and is unable to work due to his sustained injury. These growing worker safety incidents, coupled with environmental impacts, have set a dangerous example of the costs of unchecked data center buildout.
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 has responded to these mounting worker issues by holding a sustained picket outside the site and at City Hall. Tensions have escalated since the October 29, 2025, arrest of two of their union members outside the facility and the impounding of their equipment, due to Phoenix's claims of trespassing, with no evidence provided. Phoenix is now suing Local 150 for $2 million in “economic damages,” and the lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. This lawsuit raises serious civil liberties issues that could be replicated across other projects.
