BONNER — A proposed AI data center at Bonner Mill Industrial Park is now dead in the water, after the property owner withdrew his signature from the data center’s application.
We spoke to the property owner, Mike Heisey, and he pointed us to a statement he gave on Missoula County Voice.
(WATCH: Proposed Bonner AI data center project stalls, application not moving forward)
He stated, “After hearing from the public and understanding what the concerns are, I have decided to withdraw my signature from the Krambu special exception application. Bonner Property will not be moving forward with the data center proposed by them. We appreciate the public’s feedback and will continue to actively pursue clients for the mill site. Thank you.”
In March, the company KRAMBU submitted an application to transform the old mill site into an AI data center with what they called a sustainable environmental footprint.
The proposed 29-megawatt closed-loop data center in Bonner drew controversy almost immediately after its proposal.
The data center company, KRAMBU, went through several application submissions, as county planners found holes in their applications over a months-long period.
One such hole was where backup generators would be placed, with initial applications failing to show that they would even exist.
But now, Mike Heisey, the property owner where the data center was set to be built, has withdrawn his signature from the application.
Without his signature, the application can no longer go forward in any capacity - essentially killing the project.
Karen Hughes, director of the Missoula County Planning, Development and Sustainability department, says that the AI company cannot move forward on this site; nothing is stopping the company from pursuing another location.
“Without the property owner being in agreement that they put the data center at that location, then no. I suppose it's possible that Cranboo or some other operator could ask to put in a data center at some other location. In which case that, if it's zoned, then we have to look at what the zoning says,” Hughes said.
We reached out to KRAMBU for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
While the company may have the option to look at other locations, the Missoula County Commissioners will hold a public meeting on Thursday to determine whether the county should place a moratorium on data centers county-wide.
