City Of Hermantown Shares Information On Controversial Northern Minnesota Google Data Center

The City of Hermantown released a formal statement commenting on the official announcement of a Google data center set to be built in the Northeastern Minnesota town.

In 2025, it was announced that plans were being made for an unnamed company to build a data center in the city of roughly 10,000 people, adjacent to Duluth. Today (March 3), the City of Hermantown revealed that the company behind the project is Google.

Here's a look at the new information the City of Hermantown revealed about the project and a little background if you haven't been following the story so far.

Early controversy over the proposed Hermantown data center

While some have been welcoming the announced project as an economic opportunity for Hermantown and the Twin Ports area, others have met the proposed project with resistance.

In the early stages of approving the project, numerous members of the public voiced frustration with the lack of transparency on the project.  Local government leaders signing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) related to the project drew ire from community members, and concerns over the potential environmental impacts of the proposed data center prompted a lawsuit over the environmental review for the project.

The lawsuit alleged that there was a lack of thorough analysis and other information that the groups filing the suit say is crucial to making informed decisions on the project.

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Opponents to the project flag a number of concerns related to the project, including the water usage necessary to cool data centers of this kind and the impacts of that, as well as concerns over noise pollution from the facility, tax impacts, air pollution related to supplying power to the facility, and how the facility would impact local energy costs and availability.

The City of Hermantown has developed a frequently asked questions online document addressing questions about the data center, including water usage, wetlands impacts, noise concerns, tax impacts, and other information.

City of Hermantown makes formal announcement

In a public release published today (March 3), the City of Hermantown formally unveiled Google as the company behind the proposed data center to be built in the city. The city calls it "the beginning of a partnership that could result in significant long-term investment in Northern Minnesota."

The city says Google chose Hermantown due to the "region’s energy-efficient climate, highly-skilled local work force, and Minnesota Power’s resilient power grid."

The City of Hermantown's City Administrator, John Mulder, said the city is "excited Google is choosing Hermantown, knowing the commitment they make will have
a substantial positive impact". He continued, “Their desire to make a home here shows they are invested in the future of Hermantown and our greater region.”

The City of Hermantown's case in favor of the data center

Along with the aforementioned commitment to the region from Google, the City of Hermantown highlights the "significant commercial tax base growth" for the City of Hermantown, the Hermantown School District, and St. Louis County.

In addition, the City of Hermantown says Google will be collaborating with Minnesota Power to "pursue an approach that supports the local energy grid and the state’s forward-looking carbon-free energy goals".

Mulder said, "Their commitment to meeting Minnesota’s strong environmental standards, their desire to invest in local infrastructure in ways that do not raise rates for our residents and businesses, and their efforts within the local labor market will be incredible. We look forward to what greater collaboration with Google can provide.”

You can read the full statement here.

Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce on proposed data center

Prior to the public announcement made today, Kimberly Parmeter from the Hermantown Area Chamber of Commerce told PBS North's show In Business late last fall that while the data center has been viewed as controversial, the project has the opportunity to provide a lot of economic benefit to the region.

Among the benefits Parmeter highlighted is the connection of city infrastructure from where it currently ends, all the way out to the end of the project boundary at Midway Road.

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She says it would be a "several hundred million dollar" project that would otherwise likely not happen due to the prohibitive costs. This type of investment from the data center developer, Parmeter says, would open the door to new housing and business growth opportunities in the project corridor that otherwise might not happen.

Parmeter admitted at that time that there is a lot of additional information that needs to come out, but similar to the (more recent) comments from the City of Herrmantown, she sees this as having a potentially significant positive impact on the area.