• Proposed Piedmont, OK project planned with a 300 MW natural gas peaker plant
• Pivots focusing on more receptive communities across the Midwest
• Developer eyeing funding own infrastructure needs

Cloverleaf Infrastructure is taking on its first onsite power generation project in Piedmont, Oklahoma.

The developer’s USD 1bn Piedmont, Oklahoma project, Project Open Sky, proposes an up to 1.4 GW campus with the onsite generation via a 300 MW natural gas peaker plant on more than 1,000 acres adjacent to the Oklahoma Gas and Electric (OG&E) Mathewson Substation in Canadian County.

While Cloverleaf, which recently received a minority investment from NVIDIA, generally relies on grid power – locating projects adjacent to substations to reduce the need for additional transmission infrastructure – the developer turned to onsite generation at the Piedmont site due to constraints on available energy in the area.

Navigating the tricky waters of powered land development is nothing new for Cloverleaf, which has built up a successful track record in its two-year history. In an interview with NPM, Chief Development Officer Aaron Bilyeu talked about his company’s approach to navigating the entitlements space and the broader challenges facing large-scale data center development.

More recently, Piedmont City Council held a public hearing to consider the project that lasted hours, the latest in a sequence of meetings that have been ongoing for months.

Regulatory hurdles with standardized meeting posting timelines and scheduling conflicts, as well as public opposition can prolong the entitlement process – something Cloverleaf (like many developers) has encountered across multiple projects.

Project pivots

Cloverleaf’s broader strategy in site selection is to find communities that are supportive of data center development rather than attempting to force a project into a community that does not want it.

“Instead of assuming a community is going to be excited about data centers, we’re making sure that they’re supportive before we go there and before we announce projects,” Bilyeu explained.

The developer has withdrawn from some areas to focus on others, including a dropped proposal last year in Carlton, Wisconsin, following significant public opposition.

For the Piedmont project, the developer has an alternative site in adjacent Kingfisher County.

Cloverleaf has secured 337 acres across the county line that could allow the project to move forward in the same general area if Piedmont – which next meets to consider the proposal on September 17 – rejects the current project.

“If the city of Piedmont says, ‘No thank you, we don’t want the data center in the city,’ the data center will still be in the same general area,” Bilyeu said.

Similarly, a potential 1 GW Cloverleaf project in Greenleaf, Wisconsin, was moved just west to Wrightstown after local officials initially expressed interest and then demurred.

Bilyeu said the company was directed by Greenleaf officials to consider Wrightstown.

Recently, a referendum vote asking residents if they wanted a data center in the community resulted in a majority “no,” and council enacted a one-year data center moratorium in July.

In a follow-up statement responding to the future of Wrightstown project, Cloverleaf representatives said:

“Wisconsin offers the right mix of infrastructure and workforce talent to attract investment and support long-term growth. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with community members as we pursue opportunities that will create quality jobs, generate new tax revenue and deliver lasting benefits for residents, schools and first responders.”

The developer made a nearly identical geographic pivot in Monroe County, Michigan, after the Dundee Village Council blocked municipal water supply to Cloverleaf’s proposed 750-acre Project Ironwood. The firm withdrew the proposal and shifted its focus just east to Frenchtown Township, pursuing the Project Cherry Blossom data center campus.

What the firm brings to the table, however, is the ability to deliver.

Project handoffs

Cloverleaf has handed off a number of large-scale projects to hyperscale customers, including the Port Washington, Wisconsin, USD 15bn, 3.5 GW Project Lighthouse, which was taken over by Vantage Data Centers as part of an OpenAI and Oracle Stargate AI campus, and the Monroe County, Georgia, 1.12 GW Rumble Technology Park, which was taken over by Google.

As a powered land developer, the firm secures land options, obtains zoning and other entitlements and works with utilities to source power before selling the resulting development package to a hyperscale user, neocloud or colocation company.

The end user then takes over the project and handles the design and construction of the data center, and Cloverleaf does not take on the project’s long-term financing.

End users are typically not engaged until later in the development process.

“We like to engage with the end users when we have a very high level of certainty around the project, so that we’re not we’re not stringing people along on projects that don’t happen,” Bilyeu said, referring to the project’s land entitlement and power position.

That timing in its approach to large-scale data center developments also allows Cloverleaf to continue pursuing a development opportunity even if a particular end user changes its plans, he added.

With multiple potential users interested in its sites, losing one just allows another customer to take over a project.

Bilyeu said Cloverleaf has no shortage of interest, and while Project Open Sky does not currently have a specific end user, it has several interested parties.

Responsible development

Developers and end users are increasingly focused on addressing concerns around infrastructure, water, noise and other impacts to move their projects forward.

Cloverleaf signed Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan Affordability and Responsible Growth Pledge, which calls for data center developers to address issues including infrastructure costs, noise and water use.

“We’re about doing data centers right,” Bilyeu said. “We’re about doing data centers in a more regulated environment. We’re about doing data centers in places where people are going to pay their own way.”

Cloverleaf has also committed USD 10m in community benefits on several projects facing opposition, Bilyeu told NPM, with the goal of providing benefits to communities before facilities become operational and begin generating tax revenue.

The approach reflects a broader shift the executive said he’s seeing in the industry, with developers increasingly expected to address infrastructure and community concerns upfront rather than rely on communities to absorb the costs associated with data center development.

Cloverleaf initially secured over USD 300m in capital commitments from NGP and Sandbrook Capital, alongside contributions from its management team in July 2024. NIVIDIA then announced on August 21 that it entered into a strategic partnership with Cloverleaf that included NVIDIA making a minority investment in Cloverleaf.

NPM is tracking seven planned data center projects across the country in Wisconsin, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Kansas.