A massive development is proposed for a northeastern Minnesota city. Local officials aren’t saying what it is.

HERMANTOWN, Minn. – A big industrial project is envisioned on more than 200 acres here. Homeowners are receiving letters asking if they would sell their properties. Trees could start coming down this year.

Despite questions from neighbors, however, city officials aren’t saying what this new development is. Hermantown officials signed a nondisclosure agreement with Mortenson, a Minneapolis construction engineering firm.

Mayor Wayne Boucher said developers approach the city often, and until they apply for something and it becomes official, “we don’t make comments.”

“We want to be cognizant of their privacy when they’re exploring opportunities,” he said.

The proposal has triggered both environmental-review and neighborhood concern in the city that borders Duluth to the west.

Hermantown recently asked for an Alternative Urban Areawide Review, which will examine how a development scenario would affect the environment. A limited liability company, Harmony Group, is listed as the proposer. An attorney associated with the company did not return a message.

Hermantown economic development director Chad Ronchetti said two city staff members had signed the agreement. But the city operates with the same level of privacy and confidentiality with all developers evaluating projects there, regardless of whether an NDA is signed, he said.

“I think that having an NDA provided the developer with a level of comfort” to determine whether its project will be successful, Ronchetti said.

The 400-acre study area is in Hermantown’s southwestern corner, on rural forested land that holds a Minnesota Power substation and some homes. The “light industrial” development to be evaluated would include multiple buildings on 210 acres in the eastern portion of the area. The document says tree clearing could begin later this year.

Hermantown leaders recently changed the area’s future land use in its comprehensive plan to business and light manufacturing. They also rezoned Minnesota Power’s land to allow communication services, including housing for data storage.

“We’re anticipating what’s coming down the line,” Ronchetti said. “There’s a lot of discussion, particularly at the state level, about facilities that feed the future of data, AI, tech... So in anticipation of a potential project that may or may not ever materialize, we wanted to provide the option within our zoning code.”

A letter from Mortenson obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune asks a resident to consider selling their home.

“We are working on site selection for an industrial project in Hermantown in the area of Morris Thomas Rd. Saint Louis River Rd and Midway Rd,” the letter reads. “We are working on behalf of one of our customers and are interested in buying your home.”

A spokesman for Mortenson said he was unable to provide information on the client or details of the project.

At a meeting on April 21, Timothy Resberg, who lives east of the potential development, asked Hermantown’s City Council to say who was buying land in the area and whether it’s a data center.

“We would like to have the city council give us some information about that,” Resberg said. “So far we haven’t heard from anybody.”

City Administrator John Mulder said there are “private land transactions” occurring but Hermantown doesn’t know all the details.

Hermantown resident Mike Ralph, whose property borders the site, also asked at the April 21 meeting what the council knows about the industrial project and the land purchases.

“Not anything that’s public,” Boucher, the mayor, said.

The Hermantown site shows some hallmarks of a potential data center development. The planning document says construction would take place over 5 to 10 years. It’s common for data centers to start small and expand over time.

The plot of land being studied is about as large as property where Amazon is proposing a data center in Becker. The development would also be adjacent to a Minnesota Power substation and large transmission line. Minnesota Power has marketed the site as capable of supporting a customer with high power needs, such as a data center, said Drew Johnson senior vice president of development with the Minnesota-based firm Oppidan.

Johnson said his company was also tracking the land as part of its national database of possible data center locations. Oppidan has announced plans for three large-scale data centers in the Twin Cities. There is significant demand for land near electric infrastructure such as substations — which on that site is undergoing updates — and big power lines.

Minnesota Power spokeswoman Amy Rutledge said the utility did not request the rezoning of its property but is supportive of it.

The environmental review document also notes sewer and water extensions are needed, and says that could begin next year and take two years to complete.

Ronchetti said the 12 miles of water main needed to connect to that area could cost anywhere between $50 million and $100 million, and couldn’t be done without “significant private development.”

And that can’t happen without public utilities, he said.

“In terms of timeline ... we just know that we’ve got a long way to go,” Ronchetti said.

He said the site is prime because of the power infrastructure and the rail and highway corridors that connect nationally. The vast developable acreage is a rarity in the region.