Affiliates of Patriots owner Robert Kraft have floated a data center plan that The Boston Globe, citing Cleanview data, said would rank as the fourth-largest in the U.S. The Kraft Group and Unified Global Packaging Group have outlined a 10-building, roughly 900-megawatt campus in Sutton, Mass., which developers estimate at more than $16 billion of private investment. Town officials stress that nothing has been filed.
The plan reached the public on Nov. 10, when it was taken up at a regular Sutton Select Board meeting. It appeared on the posted agenda as “UGPG β Proposed Lot 1 Development Opportunity.” Town Manager Austin Cyganiewicz laid out the developers’ outline in a memo to the board. Its contents were reported the same night by The Boston Globe and CBS Boston.
“No application has been filed, and important details on power, water, equipment and site impacts are still to come,” Cyganiewicz wrote, according to both outlets.
The Sutton data center plan in numbers
According to the memo as reported, the campus would sit on land held by the Kraft family’s Unified packaging business, off Boston Road and Providence Road in Sutton. The town of about 9,700 residents lies roughly 10 miles south of Worcester. The developers’ schedule would open the first two buildings in 2029 and add two more each year through 2033, for 10 in all.
At full build-out the campus would draw about 900 megawatts. The Globe put that at about 7% of Massachusetts’ peak electricity use on the hottest summer day last year. CBS Boston reported that the developers told the town they are in talks with ISO New England, the regional grid operator, about securing power. They are also exploring treated wastewater for cooling. The Kraft Group has not named prospective tenants, and it did not comment to either outlet.
The memo’s tax projections explain why the proposal got a hearing in a town of this size. The Globe reported that Sutton’s total assessed property value is about $2.8 billion and its annual budget about $40 million. The first two buildings would pay an estimated $10.4 million a year in property taxes starting in fiscal 2031. All 10 would pay about $27.8 million a year by 2035, CBS Boston reported. That is close to the town’s entire fiscal 2027 tax levy of $32 million.
“Because the Town raises only what its budget requires, the main effect would be lower tax bills,” Cyganiewicz wrote, as quoted by CBS Boston. The memo projects the average single-family tax bill falling to $6,846 in fiscal 2031 from $9,134, the Globe reported. CBS Boston put the projected savings at about $5,800 a year by fiscal 2035.
A packed room, and no vote
The board did not vote. “This is not a project that’s a done deal,” Select Board Chair Jonathan Anderson said, according to the Globe, which reported that all six residents who spoke during a roughly 15-minute comment period opposed the plan. Residents raised water use, noise, energy consumption, public health, home values and infrastructure, CBS Boston reported.
“Will our infrastructure be able to support such a huge development?” resident Rebekah Nydam asked, as quoted by CBS Boston. State Rep. Joseph McKenna said, “I’m not willing to say no just because it’s a scary project, it’s new technology, there are concerns.” He added that the concerns must be addressed “in a way that is beneficial for the town of Sutton.”
CBS Boston reported that several public comment meetings are planned, the town will publish a website with frequently asked questions, and a town meeting vote could come in the spring.
A state that now requires local buy-in
Any Sutton project would also fall under Massachusetts’ new rules for the industry. On Sept. 8, Gov. Maura Healey signed Executive Order No. 658 on data center development. As CBS Boston summarized it, the order requires developers to reach community benefit agreements with host communities. It also requires new data centers to supply their own energy or pay a fee. The outlet also noted that the state paused data center tax breaks in June.
The proposal also lands one week after local voters around the country backed data center limits in at least 37 of 41 local ballot measures. That extends a pattern in which local opposition has stalled tens of billions of dollars of projects this year.
On our reading, Sutton is where the economics of the data center boom and that backlash meet head-on. The tax relief the memo projects is large for a town this size. But the project still has to clear multiple town committees, a likely town meeting vote and a state process that now runs through a negotiated community benefits agreement. The grid connection and water supply, which the town manager flagged as open questions, may decide whether the campus gets built on the timeline the developers describe. Further coverage of the sector is on our technology and AI page.
