For months, Martindale Brightwood residents have been rallying against a proposed data center. They have hosted numerous press conferences, community town halls, organizing events and rallies, all in the hope of building up enough momentum to persuade city development commissioners to not allow Metrobloks, a California-based startup, to build a data center next to their homes.
Environmental and consumer advocates from across the city have joined in the calls against the $500-million proposal on 14 acres of land just north of Sherman Drive and 25th Street.
Metrobloks faces its first hurdle on Thursday, Feb. 12: a public rezoning hearing where an appointed official will recommend a stamp of approval or denial. From there, the zoning matter will go before the nine-member Metropolitan Development Commission and eventually the Indianapolis City-County Council.
Metrobloks, a Los-Angeles-based startup, wants to build an urban data center on 14 acres of empty land in Martindale-Brightwood, shown above. The site near the corner of 25th St. and Sherman Drive was formerly home to the Sherman Drive-In.
Metrobloks, a Los-Angeles-based startup, wants to build an urban data center on 14 acres of empty land in Martindale-Brightwood, shown above. The site near the corner of 25th St. and Sherman Drive was formerly home to the Sherman Drive-In.
Here are five things to know about the data center and how it could impact Indianapolis as the project moves through the process.
1. It’s a test for data centers in the city
As data center operators swarm the Midwest in search of the next data center alley, Indiana has become a popular home due to an abundance of cheap electricity, plenty of empty land and hefty incentives offered up.
Though Indianapolis already has dozens of small, urban data centers operating within the city limits, residents in 2026 come armed with information on the dangers and drawbacks of the centers. Grassroots organizers got a boost in confidence when Franklin Township residents pushed out a Google data center last year.
Ask a chorus of Martindale Brightwood residents how they feel about the proposed data center and they give a clear-cut answer: We don’t want this. At local meetings, hundreds of people have voiced that sentiment, and few, if any, supporters in the community have come out of the woodwork.
«We are in for a fight, and they know it,» said Delma Williams, a lifelong Martindale Brightwood resident.
The district councilor, Ron Gibson, has publicly supported the Martindale Brightwood project, making it highly improbable the Commission’s decision would be overturned by the Council after it’s made.
At the same time, the Council is considering regulations and guidance on data centers. Last week, American Tower Corp. withdrew an unpopular plan to build a 20,000-square-foot unmanned facility in Pike Township citing the Council’s ongoing work to better regular data center zoning.
2. AES will have to provide electricity
If Metrobloks gains approval, the data center will be added to AES’ electric grid, which covers all of Marion County. Upon completion of the full build-out, the data center will be a 75MW facility.
Metrobloks pledged to cover 100% of the cost of new power generation needed for the project. Under state regulations, data center operators must sign agreements to pay for at least 80% of the cost to build out generation for data centers, and in some instances, users opt to pay 100%.
Though the data center will require significantly less energy than some of the larger projects proposed, some Indianapolis residents struggling with already-high electric bills worry the extra costs will be placed onto them. (For instance, Google’s Morgan County site will require twice the electricity use as the number of households in Indianapolis.)
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The state’s utilities and energy secretary maintain Indiana has more than enough energy to power large-load data centers and argue the developments can help grow the power grid. In the fall, AES mapped out what energy sources the utility would need should an influx of data centers enter their grid. The initial plan shows AES leaning on new gas engine and battery storage power to serve data centers.
AES maps energy sources for future — plus Plan B for extra load data centers could bring
3. Neighbors decry ‘environmental racism’
Part of Metrobloks’ approach to finding homes for its urban data centers is identifying brownfields, or land that is likely contaminated, to turn «distressed commercial real estate land into state-of-the-art Data Centers,» according to its website.
The company found a brownfield at 2505 N. Sherman Drive and has pledged to do necessary remediation if the rezoning request goes through.
This site, an empty 13-acre lot at 2505 N. Sherman Dr., is the area of a proposed smaller scale data center. The site is the former Sherman drive-in located in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood. Photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
This site, an empty 13-acre lot at 2505 N. Sherman Dr., is the area of a proposed smaller scale data center. The site is the former Sherman drive-in located in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood. Photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
However, neighbors say the site is more contaminated than previous discussions have suggested.
In 2004, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management identified the site as a brownfield and began testing soil samples and groundwater over the next eight or so years, according to records. A sampling of soil indicated that past uses of the land resulted in metals concentrations at several locations. At the same time, groundwater exceeded state drinking water criteria.
In 2012, IDEM said in a report that groundwater at the site had seen a significant decrease in contaminants and deemed that no further action was necessary on the land. Yet neighbors remain skeptical of Metrobloks’ plan to remediate the past issues.
«This project fits the widely accepted definition of environmental racism,» said Paula Brooks, the Environmental Justice Director on the Hoosier Environmental Council. «It places new industrial risks in a historically overburdened, under invested Black neighborhood without consent.»
Indiana attracts big tech: Data center boom is pitting Indiana residents against big tech
4. The center is not a job creator
Metrobloks says the data center would employ up to 45 high-skilled workers, a relatively low number for the half-a-billion-dollar investment.
«It’s not a job creator, and I’m not going to tell you it is,» said Tyler Ochs, the company’s attorney. «But there are jobs associated with it.»
Data center operator jobs are high paying, however, with an average annual salary of nearly $100,000. That leads many in Martindale Brightwood to assume that the roles won’t go to those in the neighborhood, where only about 11% of residents obtain a degree past high school.
5. Metrobloks likely to cash in on incentives
Even without creating an abundance of permanent jobs, data center operators are eligible for generous tax incentives. Data center operators can qualify for a sales and use tax exemption on equipment and energy for 25 years. That’s in addition to a tax exemption that local governments can consider giving to operators that invest at least $25 million in real and personal property.
An incentives offer will be considered and offered once the rezoning matter is resolved, a Department of Metropolitan Development spokesperson said.