Lebanon City Council approves plans to incentivize Meta to build in Boone County

A new $800 million data center for Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, could be coming to Boone County.

The Lebanon City Council met Monday and unanimously approved a proposal package that includes a new TIF district and property tax abatements for Meta to build on 1,400 acres of land in the city’s LEAP district.

Lebanon Mayor Matt Gentry said the company could close on its purchase of the land as soon as the end of this year.

“This is a great opportunity for the city, both from a job creation standpoint, but also just from a capital investment and what this can do for our community,” Gentry said.

Meta would open four new buildings on the land and hire 80 full-time employees. The employees would be paid $36 per hour.

Lebanon city officials said that there could potentially be up to six phases of construction. Meta’s total investment in the LEAP district could eventually reach $4.8 billion.

The LEAP Lebanon Innovation District was developed by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation to bring large investments to central Indiana. Eli Lilly has committed more than $13 million for new medical and research facilities in the district.

One of the proposals approved by the council addresses Meta’s request for three million gallons of water per day and 1.5 million gallons of wastewater service. Water usage in the LEAP District has been a controversial issue in the past. Earlier this year plans to build a pipeline to funnel water from the Wabash River to Lebanon were put on hold.

If Meta goes through with the project in Lebanon, it would mark the company’s second data center in Indiana. In January, the city of Jeffersonville announced Meta will open a data center there.