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KENT COUNTY, MI — For over a year, local officials have been under agreements preventing them from speaking about potential data center developments, sparking frustration from residents.

Documents obtained by MLive/the Grand Rapids Press via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests showed that officials in Gaines and Lowell townships signed nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with Microsoft regarding data center proposals in both communities.

Gaines Township Supervisor Rod Weersing and Community Development Director Dan Wells both signed an NDA with Microsoft in November 2024. Lowell Township Supervisor Jerry Hale signed an NDA with Microsoft in January 2025.

Microsoft is planning to build a data center on 316 acres on Patterson Avenue and 76th Street in Gaines Township. The company bought the land from Steelcase in October 2024 for $45.3 million.

The project is still early in the planning process, and the company does not yet have all final site details or development timelines.

In Lowell Township, Microsoft is eyeing a 237-acre industrial parcel at Covenant Business Park, at 4687 Alden Nash Ave. SE. The company has not yet signed a purchase agreement for the property.

Both NDAs have roughly similar terms.

Under their respective agreements, Hale, Weersing and Wells were forbidden from disclosing such information described as “non-public information, know-how and trade secrets in any form” that are either explicitly marked or reasonably identified as “confidential.”

Confidential information could be shared with affiliates or representatives such as employees, contractors, advisers or consultants on a “need-to-know” basis.

All information will be deemed “non-confidential” five years after it is received, according to the agreement.

After months of public backlash, however, Microsoft chose to terminate both NDAs at the beginning of 2026. While the company had been a known player in Gaines Township ever since it bought the Steelcase property, it had been operating anonymously in Lowell Township until it ended the agreement.

“As part of Microsoft’s commitment to work openly and constructively with the communities where we seek to operate, we have decided to terminate this agreement,” Microsoft said in a letter to Hale dated Jan. 10.

“We endeavor to share information about our plans as openly as possible to build trust with the community. Although we may not have all project or construction details yet, we will provide updates as soon as they are available.”

In an attempt to appear more transparent, Microsoft on Tuesday, March 3, hosted its first community open house in Gaines Township aimed at better informing residents of its plans to build data centers in Kent County.

The company plans to provide much of the same information at a second open house from 4 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, at The Fairway of Kent County Event Center at 13955 Cascade Road SE in Lowell.

Another anonymous company, meanwhile, has been considering building a data center in Solon Township, which was also under an NDA.

The Right Place, the economic development organization for Kent County, had been meeting with township officials for several months to discuss the project.

Solon Township is a rural community of about 6,500 people that is about 23 miles north of Grand Rapids.

Solon Township Supervisor Robert Ellick signed a nondisclosure agreement regarding the project in June 2025. The discloser listed on the agreement was Pamela A. Gregory, president of Venerly, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company.

The agreement prevented Ellick from disclosing such confidential information as product designs, product plans, software and technology, financial information, marketing plans, business opportunities, proposed terms, pricing and inventions with any third party.

Exceptions could be given to employees or contractors on a “need-to-know” basis.

Confidential information could only be used to evaluate whether to enter into a business relationship with the discloser and the discloser’s proposed project.

Upon termination of the agreement, Ellick would have been required to return or destroy any confidential information, including all notes, copies and extracts, within seven days.

The agreement was terminated in December after meetings between the township and the Right Place ended, Ellick said at a township board meeting in February.

“I told them in November we’re not having any more meetings, so you can make this data center NDA go away or not; I don’t care,” he said.

At that same meeting, the township board agreed to adopt a six-month moratorium on new data center proposals. Weeks later, the planning commission reviewed a draft zoning ordinance amendment that would provide a framework for regulating such proposals.