GRANGER — Owners of the St. Joe Farm have sold 929 acres of its farmland to the Microsoft Corp., according to the St. Joseph County recorder’s office.
This answers who the unnamed purchaser is for the future computer data center at the site, east of Capital Avenue and Cleveland Road.
And it confirms what some residents had already speculated as they opposed the industrial rezoning of the land at county meetings this spring.
Microsoft is paying a total of $77.5 million, according to the county assessor’s office.
The land was transferred to Microsoft on May 23, a warranty deed in the recorder’s office shows.
But St. Joe Farm’s local owners are continuing to deal in rural real estate, as they recently purchased more than 500 acres in Florida, according to the Ocala StarBanner, a member of the USA Today network.
Since 1867, St. Joe Farm had been used by Holy Cross brothers to feed staff and students at the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame sold it in 2008.
The farm’s most recent owner, Paul Blum, had lamented to the county’s Area Plan Commission in April that he and his wife struggled with mud and silt issues in the soil, saying that they’d lost 40% of their income and spent millions on irrigation and improvements.
Several neighbors had opposed the rezoning. They felt they didn’t get enough of their questions answered. Many felt they didn’t get assurances that their rural life wouldn’t be disrupted, among other issues.
Ultimately, the St. Joseph County Council voted 6-3 to grant the rezoning in a 4.5-hour meeting on May 14 as they fielded last-minute answers to questions from Microsoft’s local consultant for the sale, Mike Danch. The council was under pressure that, according to Danch, the as-yet-unnamed developer would seek a property elsewhere if the rezoning didn’t pass that night.
Long meeting: Under pressure to vote, county council approves rezoning of St. Joe Farm for data center
Meanwhile, St. Joe Farm LLC recently paid $5.05 million for 560 acres in a rural area north of Ocala, Fla., according to a deed on file with the Marion County Clerk of the Circuit Court in that state.
The county is northwest of Orlando. The land is classified as agricultural, and the deed was recorded on May 31.
The St. Joe Farm sale follows announcements that Amazon Web Services will build a data center in the Indiana Enterprise Center east of New Carlisle and that Google is building a data center near Fort Wayne. Northern Indiana has proven desirable to data center companies because of lower cooling costs and access to water.
Jim Ross of the Ocala StarBanner contributed to this story.
South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Microsoft buys St. Joe Farm land for computer data center in Granger
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