Mayor James Mueller announces guidelines for potential future hyperscale data centers in the City of South Bend
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Mayor James Mueller unveiled the first draft of his plan to make South Bend attractive for data center developers and beneficial to taxpayers.
The document is called South Bend's Neighborhoods-First Framework for Data Centers. It applies to data centers over 70 megawatts or 15 acres or more. The press conference was not an announcement for a data center project. Rather, a layout of the City's five core principles for hyperscale data center proposals.
Those principles are:
- Pay their own way
- Be a good neighbor
- Steward to our natural resources
- Use local labor
- Deliver fair return.
First, they have to pay their own way.
"That means that they pay their property taxes in full. There are no abatements. There are no below value deals. There's no city subsidy, local subsidy of any sort, as well as they pay the needs that they have on utilities, so they have to pay the cost to utilities for what they require, and they do not pass those costs on to other ratepayers," said Mueller.
Mayor Mueller says this draft has been in the works since at least December 2025. He says transparency should be at the forefront of deal making.
"It also means that they need to operate transparently, no NDAs. Every city agreement is public."
Based on the timing of these guidelines, we asked if South Bend can expect a data center announcement anytime soon. According to Mueller, there's been a lot of speculation even on the City's end.
"But, like I said, there's nothing mature enough for us to say whether they meet these standards or not, and that's what we're going to be looking at as we finalize these to see if they meet these standards."
When asked if he could share which companies are interested in South Bend, Mueller said he did not have that information to share. Mueller also says data centers will have to be a good neighbor. So, there will be a noise ordinance.
He also shared the City also want to focus on bringing good jobs to the city.
"Anybody employed at the particular project, would know what wages they're going to get, benefits, which would include health insurance, pensions, and annuities, all negotiated as part of the community benefit or PLA that's negotiated between the owner and the unions. It does not exclude anyone from participating," explained Murray Miller with St. Joseph Valley Building Trades.
From now to October 31, South Bend residents can review the draft online and share feedback through the online comment form or by calling 311.
You can view the draft framework below