After a cryptocurrency mining project collapsed in one Ohio town, a proposed AI data center is testing whether early community engagement, developer-funded infrastructure and public disclosure can become part of the permitting playbook.
As AI data center projects grow larger, developers are discovering that securing megawatts may be only half the battle. Winning community acceptance is becoming just as important.
That challenge is playing out in Monroeville, Ohio, where Decimal Digital is proposing Project Eagle Ridge, a 100 MW AI data center, after the collapse of a cryptocurrency mining operation left the village with unpaid electric bills, a costly forward power contract, and a hard lesson in the risks of serving large industrial loads.
Rather than simply pursuing another large-load customer, both the village and the developer have changed how they approach the project.
Monroeville negotiated new electric service agreements with stronger financial protections, while Decimal is taking the unusual step of publicly sharing engineering plans, transmission strategies, consultant reports and community presentations before construction begins.
From Crypto Tenant to AI Developer #
Decimal did not originally arrive in Monroeville intending to build an AI campus.
According to CEO Roshan Shah, Decimal was a cryptocurrency mining customer of Gray Matter Advisors, owning its own cryptocurrency mining hardware while Gray Matter owned and operated the hosting facilities and provided power services. Shah said Gray Matter later relocated Decimal’s equipment to Monroeville without notifying the company after losing access to another Ohio site.
However, as Decimal worked to recover its assets, it recognized the Monroeville site’s long-term infrastructure potential.
“We started doing our homework,” Shah told Data Center Knowledge. “We realized how much infrastructure and power capacity could be available there. This is an incredible opportunity to pivot.”
Court records show Decimal was already a customer at the Monroeville mining operation before later intervening in the Gray Matter litigation and ultimately operating the facility under the court-appointed receiver.
Rewriting the Playbook #
The experience reshaped both sides of the project. Council records show Monroeville rewrote its electric service agreements to include stronger collateral requirements and other financial protections after the earlier cryptocurrency operation exposed the village to significant risk.
Decimal also chose to fund infrastructure that many projects expect utilities or ratepayers to finance.
The proposal includes a developer-funded 69 kV transmission line connecting the project to Herbert Substation, with coordination involving American Municipal Power Transmission, FirstEnergy, and PJM. Decimal says the transmission upgrades will be funded entirely by the company rather than village residents.
“We felt the right thing to do was assume that cost ourselves,” Shah said. “It didn’t feel right” for those costs to be spread across roughly 1,300 residents.
Shah said Decimal has spent about two years advancing the project’s electrical planning. Desktop transmission analyses have been completed, load studies have progressed through utility review, and the current package has been submitted to PJM.
“Interconnection follows a disciplined engineering process rather than a single approval,” Shah said. “We believe we’ve established a credible and executable pathway for the initial 100-MW Phase I compute campus.”
Shah said one lesson from the receivership was a greater appreciation for the sophistication of municipal utilities, particularly in wholesale power procurement, transmission planning, capacity management and long-term grid stewardship.
“Municipal utilities can become highly competitive destinations for AI and digital infrastructure when they combine disciplined utility planning, transparent governance and thoughtful collaboration with experienced developers,” he said.
Building in Public #
Perhaps the project’s biggest departure from industry practice is its approach to public engagement. Decimal has released detailed presentations outlining transmission planning, water studies, economic impact, acoustic analysis and engineering consultants while holding community meetings during the entitlement process.
“We don’t believe in NDAs,” Shah said. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”
The company plans to publish additional technical documents, including site plans, acoustic studies and water reports, as they become available.
Neil Osnato, founder of Persistence Analytics Group, said that level of disclosure remains uncommon.
Developers have historically kept projects quiet until major decisions were already in place, he said. As projects have grown larger, communities increasingly want to understand transmission, water, cost allocation and other infrastructure impacts before construction begins.
“Transparency is becoming part of the infrastructure stack,” Osnato said. “If the developer cannot explain the power path, transmission plan and community impact early, the project may be technically possible but politically non-executable.”
A Different View of Scale #
The project also reflects changing assumptions about what constitutes a viable AI campus.
Shah said Decimal once viewed its existing 14 MW operation, and even a potential expansion to roughly 21 MW, as too small to attract meaningful AI workloads.
“We always thought that 21 megawatts was meaningless,” he said.
As inference workloads proliferate, however, Shah believes smaller campuses may become commercially attractive even without immediate expansion to hyperscale facilities.
Shah said the campus is being designed to support both AI training and inference workloads, with final server configurations driven by customer requirements. The current design contemplates rack densities generally exceeding 130 kW per rack, while lower-density deployments would support networking, storage and related infrastructure.
The proposed campus is also being designed around a closed-loop liquid cooling architecture capable of supporting high-density AI deployments. Shah said the approach reduces water consumption compared with traditional evaporative cooling systems while maintaining flexibility as customer requirements evolve.
Beyond Monroeville #
Project Eagle Ridge still faces additional approvals before construction can begin. Decimal’s plans call for a 100 MW first phase, with future expansion requiring additional transmission investments and local approvals.
Shah said the broader lesson extends beyond a single project.
“Successful digital infrastructure projects aren’t driven by speculation,” he said. “They’re built on disciplined engineering, sound utility planning, prudent financial protections and transparent collaboration between developers, utilities and the communities they serve.”
Power remains the essential prerequisite for AI infrastructure, but Monroeville suggests it may no longer be sufficient. As projects move into smaller communities, developers are increasingly being asked to explain not only where the megawatts will come from, but also who pays for new infrastructure, how local impacts will be managed and why residents should trust the project.
“The next competitive advantage is not just access to power,” Osnato said. “It is provable executability.”