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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 44105

Cleveland

Cuyahoga

ProposedZIP 65.5% Blackpop 33,358

Proposed — permit REJECTED at zoning review (2026-05); city adopted a 3-month standalone-data-center moratorium (2026-07)

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-05-06) · ZIP demographics: 65.5% Black, pop 33,358 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Cuyahoga (~29% Black, Census QuickFacts, approx.) Status: Proposed — permit REJECTED at zoning review (2026-05); city adopted a 3-month standalone-data-center moratorium (2026-07)

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

In early May 2026 a Westlake developer, Sam Khouri of Lakeland Equity Group, applied for a permit to build what would have been Cleveland's largest data center — a $1.6 billion, 150-megawatt campus of three buildings on ~35 acres at 3560 E. 55th St., on the edge of Broadway–Slavic Village and the industrial flats. The land is owned by Morabito Enterprises, a longtime trucking firm. The proposal drew immediate public outcry. Cleveland's zoning administrator rejected the permit on 2026-05-14 ("did not make it past zoning admin review"), and Mayor Justin Bibb said he had "serious concerns about hyperscale, standalone data centers in neighborhoods." City Council then advanced and passed a three-month moratorium on new standalone data centers (Utilities Committee unanimous, June 2026; full Council vote July 15, 2026) to give the city time to write zoning rules it does not currently have. ZIP 44105 is 65.5% Black inside a county that is roughly 29% Black — the classic pattern of a large industrial load being aimed at the Black side of town.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

  • Developer: Sam Khouri / Lakeland Equity Group (Westlake, OH). (NEOtrans, Cleveland Magazine, Ideastream, 2026-05)
  • Location: 3560 E. 55th St., Cleveland 44105, between Broadway–Slavic Village and the Cuyahoga Industrial Valley / flats. Land currently owned by Morabito Enterprises (trucking). ~35 acres.
  • Size / power: Three buildings; $1.6 billion; 150 MW — described in the filing as equivalent to the power use of 100,000+ homes. Would have been the largest and most expensive data center in the city.
  • Status: Proposed / rejected. The permit "did not make it past the zoning admin review" (rejected 2026-05-14). No approved site plan, rezoning, or building permit exists as of 2026-08-02. The end-user/operator (the actual data-center tenant) was not publicly named — only the developer.
  • Context: Greater Cleveland already hosts roughly 22 data centers among Ohio's 200+ (mostly smaller colocation), but a 150 MW hyperscale build in a dense residential-industrial neighborhood is a different scale.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • Permit rejected at zoning administrator review, reported 2026-05-14 (Ideastream, News 5). Public comment against the plan was immediate; residents organized an opposition rally.
  • Moratorium legislation: A Council member introduced a data-center moratorium roughly a week before the permit was filed (late April 2026). The original version would have paused new data centers until May 1, 2027; the Utilities Committee amended it down to three months and passed it unanimously (June 2026). It went to a full Council vote on 2026-07-15 and passed. Scope: standalone data-center buildings (new construction and expansions) — not servers inside multi-tenant or mixed-use buildings. (Signal Cleveland, Axios Cleveland, News 5, Spectrum News 1)
  • Councilmember Charles Slife has been the lead voice for local regulation: "Something needs to be regulated at the local level so that we're not ending up in problematic situations."
  • Cuyahoga County convened a Data Center Working Group that released a Data Center Development Guide in May–June 2026 (see §7), urging communities to demand answers on power, water, generators, jobs, and decommissioning, and to decline NDAs with developers.
  • Watch Cleveland City Planning Commission and City Council agendas for any refiled application after the moratorium (see §8).

3. Power

  • Serving utility: The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy), which with Ohio Edison and Toledo Edison serves 1.7M+ customers in northern Ohio. (Cleveland's electric utility is FirstEnergy's Illuminating Co., not AEP Ohio — AEP serves central Ohio/Columbus.)
  • The 150 MW draw was a central objection: adding a load equal to 100,000+ homes in a region worried about grid capacity and rising bills.
  • Statewide "who pays" context — the AEP Ohio tariff: Ohio's nationally significant data-center rate fight was at AEP Ohio (Columbus/central Ohio), not FirstEnergy. In the case filed May 2024 (PUCO), the PUCO approved a data-center tariff on 2025-07-09 (effective 2025-07-23): data centers 25 MW and larger must pay for at least 85% of their subscribed capacity for ~12 years regardless of actual use, with a 4-year ramp-up and an exit fee equal to three years of minimum charges. The stated purpose is to keep the cost of new substations and transmission on the data centers that cause it rather than shifting it onto ordinary ratepayers. FirstEnergy/Illuminating Co. had not adopted an equivalent data-center tariff as of mid-2026 — so a Cleveland hyperscale load would not automatically carry the AEP-style ratepayer protections. That gap is exactly why local officials (and the Cuyahoga guide) stress grid-cost and bill-impact questions. (PUCO; PowerMag; KJK legal analysis; Cleveland Magazine)

4. Water & Drought

  • Water: Cleveland sits on Lake Erie and is served by Cleveland Water (one of the largest systems in the U.S., drawing from the lake). Great Lakes supply is abundant relative to the arid West, and the Great Lakes Compact restricts diversions out of the basin. The proposed campus's cooling-water demand and wastewater/discharge figures were not made public as of 2026-08-02.
  • Drought: Cuyahoga County / northeast Ohio was not in drought in summer 2026; the State Climate Office of Ohio reported the state largely drought-free after adequate rainfall (U.S. Drought Monitor, accessed 2026-08-02). Volume, discharge temperature, and sewer load still matter and are unquantified for this site.

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 44105: 65.5% Black, pop 33,358 (Census ACS 2023) — one of Cleveland's larger and Blacker southeast-side ZIPs, covering Broadway–Slavic Village and Union-Miles, inside a county that is roughly 29% Black.
  • Slavic Village was an epicenter of the 2008 foreclosure crisis and has carried heavy disinvestment, vacancy, and industrial-legacy pollution along the E. 55th / Cuyahoga Valley corridor. Siting a 150 MW industrial facility here would add to an already-overburdened area.
  • Historic redlining and the neighborhood's position against the industrial flats are why large-parcel industrial land is available here — and why residents fear it forecloses housing and green reuse.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • State incentive: Ohio exempts data-center equipment from sales-and-use tax via a Data Center Tax Exemption administered through JobsOhio/Ohio Dept. of Development for qualifying investments — a major statewide subsidy behind Ohio's data-center boom. Whether this specific project sought it is not public (the permit was rejected before that stage).
  • Local incentives: No Cleveland-specific abatement, TIF, or PILOT was published for the E. 55th St. project as of 2026-08-02.
  • Jobs: No jobs figure was disclosed. Hyperscale data centers typically create a large construction workforce but few permanent jobs (tens, not hundreds). The building-trades unions have generally favored the construction work; a trades leader publicly criticized the Cuyahoga County guide as too restrictive (Signal Cleveland).

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • Local outlets covering it: Ideastream Public Media, Signal Cleveland, News 5 Cleveland (WEWS), Cleveland 19 (WOIO), WKYC, Cleveland Magazine, Axios Cleveland, Spectrum News 1, and the NEOtrans blog (which broke the $1.6B detail on 2026-05-06 — the same date as the resident map report).
  • Reaction: Immediate resident opposition, a planned rally, and Mayor Bibb's pledge to establish "strong policies and real safeguards" on environmental protection and utility costs. Councilmembers Charles Slife and others pushed the moratorium.
  • County level: The Cuyahoga County Data Center Working Group guide (May–June 2026) frames the issues for all municipalities — power demand, water use, grid upgrades, backup generators, jobs, infrastructure costs, decommissioning — and recommends moratoriums, zoning updates, Community Benefits Agreements, and refusing NDAs.

8. Find Out For Yourself

Official sources (confirm your ward first — 44105 spans several Cleveland wards on the southeast side):

  • Cleveland City Hall — 601 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114. Main: (216) 664-2000. clevelandohio.gov
  • Cleveland City Council — 601 Lakeside Ave., Room 220. Council info / agendas: clevelandcitycouncil.org. Use the ward-finder to identify your Council member.
  • Councilmember Charles Slife — lead on data-center regulation; contact via clevelandcitycouncil.org.
  • City Planning Commission — 601 Lakeside Ave., Room 501; planning.clevelandohio.gov — for any refiled site plan/rezoning after the moratorium.
  • Department of Building & Housing (zoning/permits) — 601 Lakeside Ave., Room 500; (216) 664-2282.
  • Cuyahoga County Data Center Working Group / Dept. of Sustainability — see the county Data Center Development Guide at cuyahogacounty.gov (search "data center development guide").
  • The Illuminating Company (FirstEnergy) public affairs — firstenergycorp.com; PUCO for utility dockets and comments — puco.ohio.gov (or 1-800-686-7826).
  • Newsroom tip lines: Signal Cleveland (signalcleveland.org), Ideastream (ideastream.org), News 5 Cleveland.

Questions worth asking:

  1. If the developer refiles after the 3-month moratorium, who is the actual data-center operator/tenant, and what are its MW and water demands?
  2. Will Cleveland's new zoning code require data centers as a special/conditional use with public hearings — or allow them by right in industrial zones next to homes?
  3. Since Illuminating Co. has no AEP-style data-center tariff, what stops a 150 MW load from raising bills across northern Ohio?
  4. What backup-generator air permits (diesel/gas) would apply, given the neighborhood's existing pollution burden?
  5. How many permanent jobs, at what wages, and is there a Community Benefits Agreement for 44105 residents?
  6. Did any city or county official sign an NDA with the developer, contrary to the county guide's recommendation?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

Honest read: 44105 (Slavic Village / Union-Miles) is an affordable, historically Black southeast-side neighborhood with deep disinvestment scars and an industrial edge. In spring 2026 it was the target of Cleveland's biggest-ever data-center proposal (150 MW, $1.6B on E. 55th St.); the permit was rejected at zoning review and the city passed a three-month moratorium while it writes rules. As of 2026-08-02 nothing is approved or under construction — but the developer could refile, the city has no data-center zoning yet, and the serving utility (Illuminating Co./FirstEnergy) lacks the ratepayer protections AEP Ohio adopted. If you're moving here, track the City Planning Commission and City Council agendas and the county working group; the unresolved questions (operator identity, MW, water, generators, bill impact, incentives) are what to watch.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.