Blue State Residents Balk At NFL Owner’s $16 Billion Data Center Project That Could Cut Their Property Taxes

Residents of a Massachusetts town are fighting a data center that could slash their property taxes, a project of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s company.

Not one of the six people who spoke at a packed Sutton Select Board meeting Tuesday night backed the Kraft Group’s proposed $16 billion, 10-building campus, the Boston Globe reported. The town manager has projected that it would bring in millions of dollars in property taxes each year, potentially cutting residents’ tax bills by thousands of dollars, according to the paper.

Sutton Town Manager Austin Cyganiewicz estimated in a memo to the board that the initial two buildings would pay the town about $10.4 million in property taxes each year starting in fiscal 2031, the Globe reported. With all 10 buildings in fiscal 2035, that would go up to about $27.8 million annually, according to the paper.

“Because the Town raises only what its budget requires, the main effect would be lower tax bills: about $2,300 less for the average single-family home in FY2031 and about $5,800 less in FY2035,” Cyganiewicz wrote, according to CBS Boston.

The town has a structural budget gap that could grow to about $9.1 million by fiscal 2033 if nothing is done, NBC Boston reported.

Republican state Rep. Joseph McKenna, who represents the region, said that the project “could prove to be a real boon for the community,” CBS Boston reported. He told the Globe that he shares residents’ worries about electricity rates, water and noise.

“I’m not willing to say no just because it’s a scary project, it’s new technology, there are concerns,” McKenna told CBS Boston.

Drawing roughly 900 megawatts once it is finished, the campus would be the country’s fourth-largest data center, the Globe said, citing research firm Cleanview.

The Kraft Group is proposing the data center with landowner Unified Global Packaging Group, NBC Boston reported. The developers have told Sutton officials that they have been talking with the regional grid operator about power, and that they are looking at cooling the buildings with treated wastewater, according to CBS Boston.