Microsoft buys 205 acres near Racine County data center development. Totals $34 million

Microsoft Corp. has recently spent $33.9 million buying more than 200 acres near its $3.3 billion data center development in Racine County.

The software developer has purchased 69 acres along Louis Sorenson Road, in Mount Pleasant, for $12.4 million, according to Wisconsin Department of Revenue property records. The seller was Audrey L. Schaefer Family LLC.

Also, Microsoft has purchased a 10-acre tract on that same road for $800,000, according to those land records. The seller was John A. Holmes.

Meanwhile, the company bought on that road a combined 64 acres, from an affiliate of Robert Funk Farms Inc. and a trust linked to Bruce Funk and Vicki Funk, for $14.04 million.

All of those purchases surfaced on Friday.

Another purchase was disclosed in Monday's online deed postings: 30 acres on Louis Sorenson Road that was purchased from Grace Mears for $6.7 million.

Those purchases come after Microsoft in May bought 32.1 acres at 12721 Louis Sorenson Road for $8.8 million. The seller was an affiliate of development firm Wangard Partners Inc.

Those additional tracts will "support data center construction already underway in the area," said Bowen Wallace, Microsoft vice president of datacenters/Americas, in a statement.

“We are pleased that Microsoft is increasing its land holdings north of Highway 11 in Mount Pleasant and Racine County," said a statement from Mount Pleasant, Racine County, Racine County Economic Development Corp. and Milwaukee 7 regional economic development partnership.

"Microsoft is a highly-valued corporate partner and we are grateful for the significant investments they are already making in our community," it said. "We celebrate this land acquisition as we look forward to many more years of partnership to come.”

The company in December bought just over 1,000 acres of nearby farm land that's being developed for data centers. The three transactions totaled nearly $176 million.

The company paid the Village of Mount Pleasant $63.2 million for 400 acres on Braun Road and Durand Avenue. Also, Microsoft paid the village $36.5 million for 241 acres on County Highway H.

Finally, the company bought 407 acres on Braun Road and Durand Avenue from Creuziger Farms Inc. for $76 million, according to state land records.

Microsoft says it will spend $3.3 billion by 2026 to build the initial phase of its data center development.

But that's merely the architecture for success, Microsoft President Brad Smith told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in May.

Equally important, Smith said, is an investment in training that is expected to help more than 100,000 workers learn cutting-edge AI-related skills, STEM programming for middle school students, summer job opportunities for high school students and tools for business leaders to learn how to most successfully tap the power of artificial intelligence in their operations.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram , X and Facebook .

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Microsoft buys 205 acres near Racine County data center development. Totals $34 million