Lebanon LEAP District nearing deal with META, potential for $4 billion investment
Nov 26, 2024
BOONE COUNTY, Ind. -- The parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and more could soon invest $800,000 in Boone County with the possibility of billions more to follow.
The Lebanon City Council approved an incentive package Monday night to try and attract technology company META to the LEAP District. Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry said it's not a done deal yet, but it's getting close. Gentry said this could be the first of six phases totaling more than $4 billion in total investment.
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”This would actually be one of their largest data center campuses in the world if it is fully built out to six phases," Gentry said.
META would build the data center on former farmland north of State Road 32 and west of Lebanon. Gentry said the total parcel would be approximately 1,400 acres.
That would be the largest parcel sold out of the 9,000 acres the state of Indiana has acquired to make up the LEAP District. Eli Lilly & Company is building two different sites on several hundred acres of land.
The incentive package approved for META includes the creation of a TIF district, water pre-allocation and tax breaks.
The council approved a 10-year, 50% real property tax abatement and 35-year, 100% personal property tax abatement.
To offset that, Gentry said META would pay a yearly $1.5 million community impact payment.
”That is frankly to be used for anything to benefit the city of Lebanon," Gentry said. "So, parks, trails, sidewalks, street lighting, fire stations. Kind of whatever you want to dream with it is how we can apply that."
Gentry said META becoming the second company to land in LEAP is a great sign for the future of the project.
”For them to go through their own internal selection process and say, 'Hey, we want to be in Indiana, in the LEAP District, in Lebanon,'" Gentry said. "I think that’s a huge ringing endorsement for what we're doing here."
Some LEAP District neighbors don't see it that way, though.
Jim Love and Brian Daggy have both been approached about selling their land to the state for the LEAP District but have resisted. Love has been farming on his Boone County land for generations and Daggy moved to his property just three years ago as a place to retire.
Now, the two men and their families have uncertain futures and are concerned about what is happening to good Indiana farmland around them.
”There's no way we can grow crops on that land, that are good and that we're successful at, once they've destroyed it," Love said.
Naggy said they're worried about the incentives given to these companies.
”At some point that is going to come back on local landowners and property owners to make up that deficit," he said.
On top of that, they're worried about where the water will come from for all the development and subsequent factories.
"Projects that require large amounts of water ought to be located where the water is rather than having to pipe it in," Daggy said.
This is something the state and Lebanon have been working to solve. Gentry said they've nearly finalized a deal with Citizen's Energy Group to pump in 25 million gallons of water per day for the LEAP District.
Gentry said Lilly and META will not come close to using all of that water.
”In the broader scope of the 25 million gallons per day, there will be plenty of water to serve this because, again, these have long construction periods so by the time the water is needed it’ll be here," Gentry said.
The city of Lebanon will need to construct new infrastructure to expand water mains and make sure the water can get to the LEAP District but Gentry said he is confident that will happen. Gentry said the TIF District created for META is essential in making sure they can build that infrastructure.
”Like other economic developments we created a TIF district out there in the LEAP District to essentially capture that change in the assessed value, which allows us to use it for infrastructure," Gentry said. "This is a big piece of making sure we can fund the infrastructure from the water side to make sure we're not impacting current Lebanon ratepayers with the water infrastructure."
For Gentry, this is about Lebanon living up to what he sees as its full potential.
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”We're trying to make sure we have greater opportunities for our citizens going forward and, frankly, we can build a community where people want to live," he said.
Both Love and Daggy said they don't plan to sell their land anytime soon.
”We’ll just stay here and keep raising a crop and keep feeding America like we have for years," Love said. "And we'll see how long that opportunity is afforded us and hopefully we can pass that along to our children and our grandchildren."
Gentry said both META and Lilly plan to be operational in 2027.