Giant building on KBI site just the start
Aligned Data Centers wants to construct three other massive buildings at Hayes and Perkins avenue
SANDUSKY — Residents passing the busy corner of Hayes and Perkins avenues have watched a huge structure rise over the past year. That massive building — under construction on the site of the former New Departure bearing factory — is part of a $200 million-plus high-tech campus being built by Aligned Data Centers. The company broke ground on the first phase of the project, known as NEO‑01, in May 2024.
The site served as a bearing manufacturing plant from 1947-2016. When it closed in 2016, it was being operated by Kyklos Bearing International and was known as the KBI plant.
The site sat vacant since then until Aligned Data broke ground on May 22, 2024, starting a transformation into a digital hub where global companies will house cloud data, artificial intelligence workloads and high-speed internet traffic.
The first building alone is 200,000 square feet — about three football fields — and is designed to deliver up to 96 megawatts of computing power. It’s just the beginning: Aligned has acquired the full 129-acre property and plans to eventually build three other large buildings. Combined, the four buildings will total more than 1 million square feet. So far, only NEO‑01 has been approved and is under construction. The company hasn’t said exactly when it will be finished, but activity is expected to continue into next year.
📦 How much power is 96 megawatts?
The first data center building under construction will use up to 96 megawatts (MW) of electricity — that’s a massive amount of power.
💡 For context:
96 MW = enough to power 75,000–100,000 homes
That’s more than the entire city of Sandusky typically uses
Most of the energy goes toward running thousands of high-performance servers — and cooling them around the clock
⚡ Because it needs so much power, the company is building its own natural gas power plant on-site instead of plugging into the local grid.
Powering up monster site
One of the most unusual aspects of this project is how it will be powered. Instead of relying on the local electrical grid, the data center will generate its own electricity on-site. Aligned plans to install 15 massive natural gas engines capable of producing 282 megawatts — more than the city of Sandusky typically uses.
The generators are expected to arrive later this year or early in 2027. Company officials say this approach helps avoid delays tied to utility upgrades and gives them more control over energy reliability, especially during peak demand or hot weather.
What about water?
As construction continues on the first data center building, one increasingly relevant question is how much water the project will consume — and where that water will come from. While power usage has been a focal point of local interest, the demands on Sandusky’s water infrastructure remain unclear.
Industry data suggests a facility of this scale could use more than 1 million gallons of water per day if it relies on standard evaporative cooling technology. That’s comparable to the daily water needs of a small city. The center’s co-located natural gas power plant, being built to support the project, may also consume water for steam generation and cooling, adding to the overall draw on local water resources.
But public details are scarce. Local officials and company representatives have not disclosed whether the project will tap into Sandusky’s municipal water supply, rely on groundwater withdrawals, or use more advanced — and water-efficient — cooling technologies.
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