June 20, 2026

The company already wrote down its own standard

An email released under Michigan’s open-records law states when Cloverleaf will not proceed. Lowndes County is entitled to the same standard.

In an email released under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, a Cloverleaf development principal wrote about a site the company chose not to pursue: "Cloverleaf will not work in communities where this type of development is unwelcome or the development does not match the existing use for the land. That is a decision we will make ten times out of ten."

We did not write that sentence. The company did, in writing, about a different community.

The record shows the company has acted on it. It withdrew from Greenleaf, Wisconsin in January 2026. It dropped its initial Michigan plans in October 2025 after the Dundee council voted to block the water supply, acknowledging that it should have done more public communication and listening.

The record also shows the other outcome. In Port Washington, Wisconsin, Cloverleaf assembled and annexed 1,900 acres and then handed the package to Vantage Data Centers for an $8 billion campus. Both endings are real. Which one a community gets appears to depend, at least in part, on whether that community says clearly and early that the development is unwelcome.1234

Sources on this page

  1. Cloverleaf vs. Other Developments (Draft), email released under Michigan FOIA, Village of Dundee / Dundee Township, Michigan (2025-09-23). Email to Dundee officials, cc Aaron Bilyeu

    Accessed 2026-07-27
  2. Cloverleaf backs out of data center project in Greenleaf, Wisconsin, DataCenterDynamics (2026-01-01). Bilyeu verbatim statement — view source

    Accessed 2026-07-27
  3. Cloverleaf drops initial plans for Michigan data center; council votes to block water supply, DataCenterDynamics (2025-10-01). Company statement — view source

    Accessed 2026-07-27
  4. Port Washington approves $8 billion Vantage Data Centers project, BizTimes (2025-05-01). Project approval — view source

    Accessed 2026-07-27

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