Microsoft buys St. Joe Farm property for $77.5M

ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Microsoft is joining Amazon and planning a massive computer data center here in Michiana.

The St. Joseph County Assessor has confirmed that Microsoft is the company that just bought the old St. Joe Farm property, which has more than 990 acres off Cleveland Road, for $77.5 million.

The county recently voted to rezone the property to industrial, despite there being some objections from some neighbors concerned about loss of farmland and the environmental impacts.

The vote was taken without publicly naming the new buyer that has now turned out to be Microsoft.

The Seattle-based tech company did not return ABC57's requests for comment, but it appears they will join Amazon which is planning an $11 billion data center near New Carlisle, along with General Motors $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant.

All of the developments are expected to turn farmland into tech hubs and create thousands of jobs.