How a small Wisconsin city scuttled a secretive $1.6bn datacenter project
Residents of Menomonie mounted a successful protest against a huge campus proposed by Meta – and community resistance to the AI boom is growing In the spring of 2025, Sydney Brennan was riding high. The 22-year-old was finishing college and was a newly elected councilwoman in Menomonie, a city of about 17,000 in the lush plains of north-western Wisconsin. Weeks into the new job, she was invited…
In the spring of 2025, the residents of Menomonie, Wisconsin mounted a successful protest against a $1.6 billion AI hyperscale datacenter project proposed by an undisclosed big tech company. The project, set to be built on a 320-acre site, was projected to use an estimated 75,000 gallons of water per day, making it the most significant development in the city's nearly 150-year history.
The identity of the company behind the project was kept secret through the use of shell companies and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) signed by city officials.
Councilwoman Sydney Brennan, who had recently been elected, was invited to a meeting with consultants pitching the project. She expressed concerns about datacenters and the company's secrecy. The consultants, representing a shell company called Balloonist LLC, assured Brennan that the developer was committed to being "water positive" by 2030 and would fund necessary upgrades to the city's grid and water system.
However, Brennan and her fellow councilmembers were blindsided by the extent of the project and the lack of public transparency.
The project's journey began in 2024 when two Menomonie city officials, Eric Atkinson and David Schofield, signed NDAs with Balloonist LLC. These NDAs prevented the city from revealing the existence of the agreement or the identity of the tech company behind the project. In April 2024, the city council approved a pre-development agreement with Balloonist, paving the way for the datacenter project.
The city then developed plans for the campus in secret, only revealing its existence to the public in July 2025. Despite initial interest in the project as a potential economic boon, community backlash ultimately led to its downfall.
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