11/21/2025
M-LIVE BREAKING NEWS
A company that sought a data center development in Kalkaska County announced it is dropping the concept after clear opposition from the community.
Geologist Matt Rine said he is ending his pursuit of a data center in Kalkaska County and canceled the last community meeting he had scheduled to gauge public sentiment on the idea.
“We sought public input because we want to be partners with the community we live and work in. And we heard you,” Rine said in a statement.
“We are grateful we had the opportunity to engage in public discourse – it is important to work together as a community when making decisions about the future, even when there is disagreement,” he said.
A sometimes-raucous crowd at a Monday evening community meeting proved overwhelmingly against the concept of building a data center, particularly on state land, which was part of Rine’s initial idea.
At the meeting, Rine said he could pivot and instead pursue a data center on private land. But now he’s dropping the whole idea, he said.
After Monday night’s standing-room-only meeting in Fife Lake, there was a second community meeting on Wednesday afternoon at the Kalkaska County Commission on Aging, where Rin announced they were no longer looking at state land.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials have said the door is shut to this idea on public land in Kalkaska.
Rine initially pursued the idea of a land swap for a 1,440-acre tract of public land west of Kalkaska village to build a 1-gigawatt data center with an on-site natural gas power plant to provide electricity.
Rine’s company, Rocklocker LLC, works with natural gas plants on carbon-capture technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which can then be injected into underground rock formations for permanent sequestration, an industry he argues is poised for growth in Michigan.
But now he’s dropping the idea after hearing the community’s reaction.
See link in comments.