Hobart Confirmed As Amazon Web Services Data Center Site

A large slice of Amazon’s planned $15 billion data center pie is on Hobart’s plate, Mayor Josh Huddlestun confirmed Tuesday.

The city is finalizing a development agreement with Amazon Web Services that will be presented to the City Council when it’s done, he said.

The site at 61st and Colorado Street is about 500 acres, nearly half of the 1,100 acres that Brandon Oyer, head of Americas water and power at AWS, said would be needed to fulfill the company’s plans for the $15 billion investment in Northwest Indiana.

The financial impact for Hobart can’t be determined until the final numbers are crunched, but it’s going to be big money.

“I don’t think it’s out of the ballpark to think this thing could bring $20 million, $30 million a year,” Huddlestun said.

Hobart has been buffeted by a series of financial hits, from the Southlake Mall property tax appeal to Senate Enrolled Act 1, which will offer property tax relief to taxpayers by reducing the revenue local governments use to provide services to residents, he said.

“Hobart residents are struggling,” Huddlestun said. “I want to actually give them relief.”

“We’re going to provide relief to our community,” he said, with money to solve flooding issues through the city as well as improving parks, police and fire protection, and other services.

The Hobart data center complex is not without opposition. Angelita Soriano, a coordinator with the No Data Centers Hobart, Indiana group, gathered some of her colleagues at her Eagle Creek home Tuesday afternoon to plan next steps.

The group plans to protest outside City Hall at about 3 p.m. Wednesday and downtown on Small Business Saturday.

“We were hoping it wasn’t Hobart, but then we got this leaked email from Mayor Josh, telling the city employees that it was Amazon, that the information was about yesterday, that it would be here,” Soriano said.

Angelita Soriano, on right, hugs a fellow "No Data Centers Hobart" member during a Hobart Plan Commission meeting on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun confirmed Tuesday that Hobart is one of the sites in Northwest Indiana for Amazon's $15 billion investment in data centers. (Kyle Telechan/for the Post-Tribune)

“We’re disappointed just because of the wording saying it was approved,” she said. “We haven’t seen a site plan; we haven’t seen anything.”

“Where’s the democracy? We have over 3,000 members in our FB group, we have almost 3,000 signatures on our petition,” Soriano said.

Their goal is “just informing the public who’s actually coming in and putting pressure on Amazon and its shareholders,” she said.

“We’re being forced into a development that the residents don’t want,” she said.

In Porter County, residents’ opposition caused data center plans for Chesterton, Burns Harbor and Union Township to be dropped. “They’re forcing themselves into a community where they’re not wanted,” Soriano said.

“This is not a light industrial development. It’s a heavy industrial development right next to homes,” she said. “I’m sure it doesn’t coincide with their social responsibility guidelines.”

A bald eagle nest is right next to where Amazon plans to build its data centers. Indiana Dunes National Park and lakes are nearby, too. “They’re going to destroy the environment that’s in that area and all around,” Soriano said.

Her home is across the street from the proposed development. Nearby Deep River Estates is on well water, which has some residents there concerned. Dewatering for the $11 billion New Carlisle data center campuses “messed up a lot of people’s wells,” she said. “Who’s to say they’re not going to do it here?”

“The concerns of our residents were not taken lightly,” Huddlestun said, including about lights, water and noise.

Huddlestun went to Loudon County, Virginia, where there is a heavy concentration of data centers for the Washington, D.C., area. He went to Ohio, too, to check out claims about data centers.

“They’re not drawing the same amount of water resources they used to,” he said.

“We realize that not all data centers are equal, and some are built different,” Huddlestun said. “This is an economic development project that we have researched a lot.”

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.