Microsoft Restarts the Three Ohio Campuses It Cancelled in 2025, Roughly 869 MW

• Microsoft has restarted all three of its self-build data center campuses in Licking County, Ohio: Heath (5 buildings, 264 MW), Hebron (6 buildings, 317 MW) and New Albany (6 buildings, 288 MW), roughly 869 MW combined across 17 buildings.
• Microsoft publicly walked away from the $1 billion program on April 8, 2025, and the sites carried a Cancelled status for about ten months, but it kept every parcel and kept funding its roadway and utility commitments.
• Sentinel-2 satellite timelapses confirm the restart on the ground: active clearing and mass grading in 2026, versus the fields and interim agriculture of the pause period.
• Microsoft's own June 2026 Licking County economic-impact report re-commits the program's "3 campuses" and "3 datacenters" to be operational by the end of 2029, with mass grading running February to November 2026.
• Everything visible today is dirt work: no vertical-construction timeline exists at Heath or Hebron, the 2029 target leaves little slack, and the corridor moved on during the pause, with more than $10 billion of rival commitments and Intel's freed 500 MW substation lent to Meta through 2028.

In April 2025, Microsoft told Licking County officials it was not moving forward with a $1 billion, three-campus data center program, and began preparing land at two of the sites to go back to farming. The projects went into trackers as Cancelled, and for about ten months the satellite record shows fields where hyperscale campuses were supposed to rise. They are fields no longer: all three sites are being cleared and mass-graded for data centers again.

The restart is documented three ways at once: Microsoft's construction pages for Heath, Hebron and New Albany all describe active site preparation, the Village of Hebron has moved to amend its development agreement with Microsoft, and Sentinel-2 imagery shows the ground itself changing. Aterio's tracking puts the program at roughly 869 MW across 17 buildings, and Microsoft's own June 2026 economic-impact report commits all three campuses to be operational by the end of 2029. The catch: what is happening today is mass grading, not steel, and two of the three campuses have no announced vertical-construction timeline.

The cancellation that wasn't

On April 8, 2025, Microsoft backed off its $1 billion Licking County plans, telling local officials it would not be moving forward with the three campuses at that time and that it was taking steps so the land at two of the sites could be used for farming. Around the same time, Microsoft's president of Cloud Operations and Innovation described the moment as the company "slowing or pausing" some early-stage projects, a course correction inside a much larger buildout.

What Microsoft did not do is leave. It kept ownership of all three parcels and continued funding its roadway and utility commitments through the pause. That is why the program could go from Cancelled to active mass grading in about ten months, with no new land assembly and no new zoning fight: the Village of Hebron only needed to take up Resolution 26-02, an amended development agreement with Microsoft Corporation, at its February 23, 2026 meeting.

Figure: Microsoft's Licking County program in April 2025 versus July 2026. The parcels and the utility commitments never left Microsoft's books, which is why a Cancelled program could be grading again within about ten months of the walk-away. Source: Aterio U.S. Data Center dataset.

The restart, on Microsoft's own pages and from orbit

Microsoft's construction pages for all three sites now describe active site preparation and mass grading; a May 2026 note on each says some Sunday work may be necessary "to keep the project on schedule," and by early July all three carried fresh summer-construction updates. Sentinel-2 timelapses independently confirm it: clearing and mass grading where the pause period shows fields and interim agriculture.

Heath (975 Thornwood Dr SW). Five buildings, 264 MW in Aterio's tracking. Microsoft has contracted Ames Construction as the general contractor, and the Heath construction page puts mass grading at February through November 2026, with early site preparation "substantially complete" by the end of the year. No vertical-construction timeline has been announced yet.

Figure: Heath, Microsoft campus construction progress timelapse from March 9, 2025 to June 2, 2026. Captured via Sentinel-2 satellite, sourced through Copernicus; image analysis by Aterio. Source: Microsoft Heath datacenter construction updates.

Hebron (129 N High St). Six buildings, 317 MW, the largest of the three in Aterio's tracking. The Hebron construction page carries the same February-to-November grading window, expects early site preparation "to be completed by the end of the year with vertical construction to follow," and by July 2026 reports crews on long-term site development, including substation work and a stormwater pond.

Figure: Hebron, Microsoft campus construction progress timelapse from March 9, 2025 to June 2, 2026. Captured via Sentinel-2 satellite, sourced through Copernicus; image analysis by Aterio. Source: Microsoft Hebron datacenter construction updates.

New Albany (3287 Beech Rd NW, campus CMH02). Six buildings, 288 MW. New Albany was the furthest along of the three: clearing began in late October 2024, and crews had begun building foundations in summer 2025 before the site went quiet for the winter. The New Albany construction page reports activity resuming in March 2026 as warmer weather returned, and by July 2026 describes the current contractor phase as nearing completion. Because this site kept inching forward while the program was officially cancelled, satellite is the key independent confirmation for it.

Figure: Microsoft CMH02 campus construction progress timelapse from October 20, 2024 to June 2, 2026: clearing, first foundations in summer 2025, the winter lull, and the spring 2026 restart. Captured via Sentinel-2 satellite, sourced through Copernicus; image analysis by Aterio. Source: Microsoft New Albany datacenter construction updates.

The clock to 2029

Microsoft's June 2026 Licking County economic-impact report reconfirms the program's "3 campuses" and "3 datacenters," to be operational by the end of 2029. The same report counts $55 million in local economic activity from construction since 2024 and projects about 350 construction roles annually as the build ramps.

The sequence that target implies is tight. Site preparation runs through roughly November 2026, which is why the Sunday-work authorizations matter. If it completes on schedule, vertical construction should follow through 2027 and 2028, leaving about a year to commission and ramp three campuses by the end of 2029. Microsoft has not published a vertical-construction timeline for Heath or Hebron, so the middle of that schedule is expectation, not commitment.

Key program parameters:

• Operator: Microsoft; Heath (975 Thornwood Dr SW), Hebron (129 N High St) and New Albany (3287 Beech Rd NW, campus CMH02), all in Licking County, Ohio.
• Buildings: 17 total: five at Heath, six each at Hebron and New Albany.
• Capacity: roughly 869 MW combined in Aterio's tracking: Heath 264 MW, Hebron 317 MW, New Albany 288 MW.
• Status: site preparation and mass grading at all three sites, February through November 2026, Sunday work authorized.
• Timeline: vertical construction expected 2027-2028; all three campuses "to be operational by the end of 2029" (Microsoft, June 2026).
• History: publicly halted April 8, 2025 ($1 billion program); Cancelled status for roughly ten months; parcels and roadway/utility funding retained.

Source: Microsoft's Heath, Hebron and New Albany construction pages; the June 2026 Licking County economic-impact report; ABC6/FOX28 Columbus; the Village of Hebron council agenda, February 23, 2026; and the Aterio U.S. Data Center dataset.

The corridor that never slowed

Microsoft is restarting into a Licking County that did not wait for it. During the pause window, AWS, Google, Meta and Cologix committed more than $10 billion of investment in the county. Power moved too: Intel's fab delay left the AEP-built Green Chapel substation in New Albany without its intended customer, and AEP is now lending that substation to Meta from January 2026 through the end of 2028, capacity Aterio puts at 500 MW. Meta is simultaneously contracting a 2 GW behind-the-meter generation fleet from Williams barely a substation away in New Albany.

That is the cost of a pause in this corridor: land can be held, but grid capacity and supplier bandwidth get claimed by whoever keeps building. Roughly 869 MW of demand that trackers carried as Cancelled is back in the Licking County pipeline, competing for the same interconnection queue, contractors and substations as the neighbors who never stopped.

Bottom line

Microsoft's Licking County program is a live restart, documented on the company's own construction pages, in Hebron's council file, and in the Sentinel-2 record. Roughly 869 MW across 17 buildings is moving again after about ten months carried as Cancelled, with an operator-stated end-of-2029 operational date. But today it is grading, not data centers: no vertical timeline exists yet for Heath or Hebron, the capacity figures are Aterio's tracking read rather than Microsoft disclosures, and a company that walked away from these exact sites once can slow them again.

What to watch: whether the grading footprint keeps expanding through the November 2026 site-prep deadline, when Heath and Hebron get their first vertical timelines, and whether the end-of-2029 target survives a 2027-2028 vertical build. Reading a project's real status from the ground is the same method Aterio used to confirm Microsoft's own restart of its three paused North Carolina campuses: whatever the status field says, the dirt reports first. In Licking County, the dirt says Microsoft is back.

Aterio tracks U.S. data center and power projects in real time, from early zoning and permit filings to satellite-confirmed construction. Explore Aterio's latest U.S. Data Center Report for state-by-state insights, provider comparisons, and project pipeline analysis, or schedule a call to see how our data can support your investment analysis.