Why Miami County is Very High risk
Score calculated from four factors: power infrastructure, water capacity, land availability, and current exposure (known projects in the county). Miami County scores 88/100.
Piqua sits within AEP Ohio's territory adjacent to existing high-voltage transmission. The site selection along the I-75 industrial corridor is consistent with Meta's preference for proximity to grid infrastructure.
The Great Miami River and surrounding aquifer provide significant water capacity, but Piqua's existing wastewater treatment system has not publicly disclosed peak-load impact figures. Cooling method has not been confirmed by the developer.
607 acres along Farrington Road within the Piqua I-75 Business and Industrial Park. Land was previously held by Piqua Land Company, Bruns Upper Valley Development, and Piqua Materials before transfer to J5 LLC.
Project Klondike is a named, approved project with two 350,000 sq ft buildings planned. Construction is concurrent across both buildings and expected to take 3–5 years.
The facts, as filed.
Project Klondike, explained.
On a November evening in 2025, the Piqua City Commission voted by emergency resolution to approve a $1 billion data center on 607 acres along Farrington Road in the city's I-75 Business and Industrial Park. The developer of record was a Nevada-registered shell company called J5 LLC, doing business as Shaytura LLC. The actual end user — the company that would operate the data center and the servers inside — was not disclosed. Piqua officials confirmed at the meeting that they had signed nondisclosure agreements with J5 prohibiting them from naming the operator.
The project, code-named Project Klondike, calls for two 350,000 square-foot buildings developed concurrently over a three- to five-year timeline. Under the development agreement, J5 receives a 15-year, 100% tax exemption on improvements valuation increases and a 30-year, 100% real property tax exemption — in exchange for payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) into a tax increment financing fund.
In April 2026, investigative outlet Hunterbrook identified Meta as the true developer behind J5 LLC. The trail ran through a Nevada Secretary of State corporate filing for J5 LLC, which lists 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California — a building inside Meta's headquarters compound — as the entity's registered address. The same filing names David Kling, who served as Meta's Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Secretary in 2021, as J5's manager. Hunterbrook also traced co-signatory Pamela Gregorski, a senior manager at Corporation Service Company in Delaware, as appearing on six other shell-LLC filings for known data-center projects.
The Piqua NDA — later published by WLWT5 — appeared nearly identical to the NDA simultaneously imposed by another developer, DB Stu LLC, on the village council of Mt. Orab in Brown County, 100 miles south. Reps. Adam Bird (R–New Richmond) and Brian Stewart (R–Ashville) introduced Ohio HB 695 in March 2026 to prohibit county commissioners, township trustees, village mayors, and members of village councils from signing such NDAs. The bill is pending before the House Local Government Committee.
How we got here.
For Miami County residents.
The NDA pattern
What happened in Piqua is not unique — it is template-driven. The same NDA language appearing in Mt. Orab, the Cleveland City Council Google deal, and Scioto County's Google project suggests an organized industry approach to using local-government secrecy to block public input. HB 695, if passed, would ban that practice for county, township, and village officials. Cities (because of Ohio's home-rule constitutional authority) would not be covered.
The corporate shell trail
The Hunterbrook investigation is a case study in why these NDAs matter: the public information that finally identified Meta was a Nevada corporate filing — not anything Piqua officials disclosed, and not anything Meta confirmed. Without that filing, residents would not know who actually owned the project until well after construction.
What's still up for review
Project Klondike's approval is final, but several specific issues remain reviewable: water-use permits, wastewater discharge limits, EPA air permits for backup generators, and any future expansion phases. AEP Ohio's PUCO-approved 85% data center tariff (effective July 23, 2025) governs Meta's electricity contract terms.
Property values and noise
The 607-acre site is bounded by industrial parcels but its property line is roughly a quarter-mile from residential land in some sections. Comparable Meta projects (notably Beaver Dam, Wisconsin) have generated documented well-water concerns at neighboring properties. Whether Piqua sees similar effects depends on cooling design and groundwater drawdown, neither of which has been publicly disclosed.
Reporting we relied on.
- Hunterbrook — April 2026 investigation tracing J5 LLC to Meta's Menlo Park HQ
- WLWT5 — publication of the J5 LLC and DB Stu NDAs
- DataCenterDynamics — Project Klondike spec sheet
- Miami Valley Today — Piqua City Commission approval coverage
- Ohio Capital Journal — HB 695 sponsor testimony, Bird and Stewart
- Ohio.news — Mt. Orab and Piqua NDA pattern reporting
- Ohio Secretary of State + Nevada Secretary of State — primary corporate filings
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