Megaproject
Wisconsin Lands $1B Meta Data Center as Mortenson Expands Hyperscale Work
Beaver Dam campus will gain significant power-system upgrades and 570 acres of habitat restoration
The Beaver Dam Commerce Park site, shown in a city map and aerial outline, will host Meta’s planned $1-billion data center campus. The 520-acre location will require major utility upgrades and support a large wetlands and prairie restoration program tied to the project.
Meta plans to invest more than $1 billion to build a 700,000-sq-ft data center campus in Beaver Dam, Wis., and has selected Mortenson as the general contractor for what state officials call one of the largest single private-sector projects in Dodge County history.
Announced last month, the data center’s proposed location in Alliant Energy’s Beaver Dam Commerce Park, about 40 miles northeast of Madison, will be Meta’s 30th data center worldwide and its 26th in the U.S. The company expects the campus to be on line in 2027.
Meta says the facility is engineered to support expanding AI workloads and will be built to LEED Gold standards.
“We’re thrilled to locate our newest data center in Beaver Dam,” said Brad Davis, Meta’s senior director of community and economic development, in the state’s announcement. He cited reliable energy infrastructure, available land and access to skilled labor as central to the site choice.
Major Infrastructure and Power Investments
In addition to the data center, Meta will finance nearly $200 million in energy-infrastructure upgrades to support the project’s large electrical load.
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According to Alliant Energy, which will serve the facility, the work includes new utility substations, transmission enhancements and regional network improvements needed to ensure reliable service for both the data center and surrounding communities. The utility says the investments align with its broader grid-modernization strategy across Wisconsin.
Meta also pledged $15 million to Alliant’s Hometown Care Energy Fund, which provides energy-cost assistance to area households. State officials said the contribution reflects the company’s commitment to engaging with the community during the upcoming multiyear construction phase, which will coincide with rising regional power demand.
Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. estimates the project will generate up to 1,000 skilled-trade jobs at peak construction and more than 100 permanent positions. Beaver Dam Commerce Park has been a certified development site since 2019, and state officials say Meta’s selection confirms the long-term effort to prime sites for technology and advanced manufacturing investment.
Water, Cooling and Environmental Design
Dry-cooling systems rely on air-cooled heat exchangers to remove server heat without evaporating water, a shift that can cut operational water use dramatically compared with traditional cooling-tower systems.
Graphic courtesy of Adobe
The Beaver Dam campus will use dry-cooling technology, eliminating operational water demand for cooling systems.
Unlike evaporative systems used at many hyperscale campuses, dry-cooling moves heat through air-cooled heat exchangers, sharply reducing water requirements during data-center operations.
Meta also committed to restoring 100% of the water consumed by the facility to local watersheds—an increasingly scrutinized issue as AI-driven data-center development accelerates across the U.S. The company also announced a major conservation initiative tied to the project.
Meta will partner with the wetlands conservation group Ducks Unlimited, along with other environmental organizations, to restore 570 acres of wetlands and prairie around the site.
Meta said about 175 acres will be preserved for long-term conservation through agreements with landowners and environmental organizations.
State officials announced that restoration work will begin concurrently with early site construction and that monitoring agreements will extend beyond the 2027 operational date.
Economic Growth vs. Transparency Concerns
While state and local leaders have framed the investment as a regional economic boost, the announcement has drawn scrutiny from residents concerned about groundwater impacts and the transparency of the approval process.
A rendering of Meta’s planned data center campus in Beaver Dam, Wisc., shows the layout of the 700,000-sq-ft facility, supporting buildings and new utility infrastructure proposed for the 520-acre site. Rendering courtesy of Meta
Wisconsin Public Radio reported that a small group of protesters gathered at the Nov. 12 announcement event in Beaver Dam, raising questions about siting decisions and long-term environmental impacts. However, Beaver Dam Mayor Bobbi Marck said the project’s reviews were handled in compliance with regulatory requirements.
“From the city’s end, all of those permits were in line and they were following the law,” Marck told TMJ4 News, adding that officials will “trust, but verify” through inspections as the project progresses. Marck also emphasized the project’s benefits, telling a local TV reporter she is “excited for the positive things this project brings to Beaver Dam, including the increased tax base and additional jobs.”
Still, some residents remain cautious, saying they want additional clarity on water-use modeling, aquifer impacts and conservation commitments.
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Recent analyses estimate that cooling and operating large data centers—particularly those handling AI workloads—can consume water at levels comparable to a small town’s supply. One 2025 study found that, without efficient cooling, water demand across AI-era data centers in water-stressed regions could increase by more than 50%. Another recent analysis warned that data-center buildouts could boost water stress in overburdened basins by as much as 17%.
However, under the city’s development agreement, Alliant Energy and state regulators say those concerns have been largely mitigated, noting that dry-cooling significantly reduces water demand compared with typical hyperscale facilities.
Mortenson Hones Niche in Burgeoning Space
Meta’s choice in naming Mortenson as the general contractor further extends the Minneapolis-based builder’s portfolio of large North American data center projects. While the contractor has not released a detailed construction schedule, the firm’s other work for Meta typically includes early civil work, utility integration, foundation and structural sequencing, enclosure packages and mechanical, electrical and plumbing procurement for similar campuses.
The Beaver Dam site presents several infrastructure-focused challenges common to recent data-center builds, including rapid electric-load onboarding, coordination of new substations, high-tolerance structural and mechanical systems engineered for AI-optimized operations and integration of dry-cooling and water-restoration systems.
Meta and Alliant say early work will center on utility enablement and grading the 500-acre site for major foundation and steel packages. With construction expected to span several years, Mortenson and Meta plan to release additional details on contracting, local hiring and infrastructure phasing in early 2026.
The announcement comes amid continued national growth in data center construction driven by AI and cloud computing demand. Wisconsin officials say the state’s investment in power infrastructure, transmission capacity and certified industrial sites positions it to compete for additional hyperscale projects.
“Wisconsin is a leader when it comes to biohealth and advanced manufacturing industries, and we’re excited to keep building upon this tradition as we become the home to new world-changing technology,” said Gov. Tony Evers (D).
He added the investment will “help ensure Wisconsin is meeting the demands of the 21st century and creating good, family-supporting jobs to support the workforce in the Beaver Dam community and across the greater region.”
Bryan Gottlieb is the online editor at Engineering News-Record (ENR).
Gottlieb is a five-time Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism award winner with more than a decade of experience covering business, construction and community issues, including finance, law and real estate. He has reported for Adweek and the San Diego Daily Transcript and led a community newsroom in Santa Monica, Calif. He served as editor-in-chief of the Detroit Metro Times and as managing editor at Roofing Contractor, where he helped shape national industry coverage. At Engineering News-Record, Gottlieb covers breaking news, large-scale infrastructure and megaprojects, regulatory developments and business trends across the U.S. and global construction sectors.
email: gottliebb@enr.com | office: (248) 786-1591
