INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Data center development company Metrobloks on Tuesday met behind closed doors to discuss a possible data center with people from the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood of Indianapolis, just days after Google withdrew rezoning plans for a similar facility in Franklin Township.

The proposed site for the data center is the former Sherman Drive-In theater, a long-vacant property that still has a power supply, existing fiber optics, and the right zoning to support such a development. I-Team 8 first reported on the potential project on Friday.

Earnest Popescu, CEO of Metro Blocks, told News 8 after the closed-door meeting at Frederick Douglass Park Family Center, “The intent of meeting with the community was to come sort of hat in hand, and be transparent and open about what we want to do. I think there are tremendous benefits.”

Ron Gibson, a Democrat on the Indianapolis City-County Council, was among people at the meeting. He said, “This particular opportunity does a lot in terms of vacant and abandoned properties in my district. It creates some real economic development, it creates some real opportunities.”

The Sherman Drive-In Theater opened in 1965 and closed in June 1983. The site, located at 2505 N. Sherman Ave., is surrounded by an auto shop, a trucking school, and a half-filled shopping mall.

Gibson emphasized that the project is far from finalized, as many constituents want assurances that any new business will provide jobs and community resources, not just a new building. Gibson has been in discussions with an attorney for Metro Blocks and has withheld support until community leaders are satisfied with the level of investment and environmental protections.

Local leaders are concerned about past industrial activities that left brownfields and hazardous environmental concerns, and they want to ensure this will not happen again.

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