Montrose Group’s client Sunbury, Ohio had a strong end to 2024. Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to build a $2 billion data center campus in Sunbury, Central Ohio which will bring its data center investment in the state to $10 billion. AWS plans to build the site at 11793 Vans Valley Road in the Sunbury Business and Technology Park, and construction of the first 450,000 square foot (41,800 sq m) building is expected to begin in January 2028 and be completed by December 2034. Ohio is becoming a major data center market, with the likes of Amazon, CyrusOne, Edged, Google, Meta, QTS, Aligned, and others building or operating data centers in the area.
With the support of the Montrose Group, Sunbury negotiated a Public-Private-Partnership with AWS that includes a 30-year community reinvestment area property tax exemption for the assessed value of each building constructed at the project site. An 87.5 percent exemption will be given for years 1-15, and a 75 percent exemption will be provided for years 16-30 as well as a critical school compensation agreement to ensure the local school district gained revenue from the deal. In fact, the Sunbury-AWS PPP includes compensation for Big Walnut Local School District, Delaware Area Career Center, BST&G Fire District, and Delaware County.
Sunbury is a growing Ohio village in Delaware County at the center of development in the booming Central Ohio region. The Central Ohio region has grown by nearly 20% in population the last couple of decades and Sunbury had added over 2000 people to the village since 2020. Sunbury has benefited substantially from their village leadership. Joe St. John was first appointed Sunbury’s Mayor in 2021, and elected Mayor in 2022. He was elected in 2018 to his first term as a Member of Sunbury Council. In 2019, Joe was selected as President of Council. Prior to being elected in 2018, Joe was appointed by the Mayor as a Member of the Sunbury Planning and Zoning Commission where he has served since 2016. Joe is a banker by profession and has supported a pro-business agenda while balancing how to grow the village. Credit also goes to Sunbury’s Village Council who continually shows leadership through supporting smart development in the community. Sunbury has also benefited from the steady leadership of Administrator Daryl Hennessy. Daryl is a veteran not just of local government but held several leadership positions at the Ohio Department of Development.
The Montrose Group is proud of the great work of Sunbury and their AWS project that will capture billions of capital investment, millions in tax revenues and continue the high-tech growth in Central Ohio.
