WARREN, Ohio – A vice president with Oppidan Connect said the company intends to continue working with the village of McDonald on a data center project proposed for the former McDonald Steel property.
Village Council members voted during a special meeting Wednesday to impose a one-year moratorium on data centers in the village.
“We respect the council’s decision and understand the community wants time to evaluate data center development,” Drew Johnson, Oppidan Connect senior vice president and data center lead, said in an emailed statement.
Mike Cenit, managing partner at Allied Partners Inc., lamented the decision. In July 2024, Allied Partners purchased the Mcdonald Steel property, which Oppidan has under contract.
“The real danger with a moratorium is that the developer might walk away,” he said. If that happened, it would be bad for the village, which could “prosper greatly” from the project. Oppidan would be paying about $7 million annually in real estate tax on the project, income that the village needs.
He also said the one-year moratorium doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the project. There is demolition and cleanup work that remains to be done at the property before any construction could get underway, and the developer could be working to make the project more palatable to the public, possibly by reducing its scale.
“Oppidan has a sizable amount of money invested in this already,” Cenit said.
“We are working with other communities to update ordinances that balance responsible development with economic investment,” Johnson said. “We were encouraged by residents who expressed support for investment and environmental cleanup at the former McDonald Steel property, and we remain committed to working with the village to find a responsible path forward.”