SOAR AI Says Its Chillicothe Campus Opens Dec. 31. City Council Has Approved Nothing.

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CHILLICOTHE — SOAR AI says work is advancing at its planned AI computing campus at Chillicothe’s former paper mill. In an October 20 update, the company said it is installing power and cooling equipment and is targeting December 31 to bring its first computing systems online, with customer revenue expected in January. The company projects $175 million to $200 million in 2027 revenue from contracts. That figure is a company forecast, not a guaranteed local economic impact.

What the update is not is a city approval. No vote of Chillicothe City Council has approved the computing campus, and no formal development application has been reported. The Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce made the same point in its newsletter this week: “This company update does not confirm city approval.”

The timeline explains the confusion. The campus plan was announced in July as part of the redevelopment of the old mill site, with an anticipated $1.5 billion investment. On August 24, council passed a 60-day moratorium that suspended city approvals for auxiliary and large-scale data centers through October 23. On September 8, a public forum on the project packed the Chillicothe High School auditorium. On September 14, council changed course after a February zoning verification letter surfaced showing city officials had previously told the mill’s owner that a data center appeared compatible with the property’s industrial zoning. New data center legislation approved by a council committee that day was sent to the city law director. It has not come back for a vote. At council’s October meeting, members debated the project again and took no vote.

The company calls the project an AI computing campus. The city’s legislation deals with it under data centers. Work the company describes, installing equipment inside the existing mill buildings, is proceeding on the company’s own timeline while the city’s legislation sits unpassed.

The rest of the site is moving on separate tracks. Workers are preparing the No. 12 paper machine, known as “The Chief,” for a return to papermaking, though no timetable has been shared. Glove manufacturing lines are already running at the site. Plans for airplane fuselage work by Amphibian Aerospace Industries continue to take shape.

Public opinion in Chillicothe has been split since the plan was announced, and both sides have said so in the open. Opponents have raised questions about water use, electricity demand, wastewater, noise and the effect on nearby homes, and some say they still do not feel heard even after the September town hall. In the comments on our September forum coverage, one reader wrote: “This issue needs to be on the ballot! Let democracy do its job.”

Other residents argue the site sat closed after the mill shut down and no other buyer has stepped forward. In the same comment thread, one woman who described herself as a Chillicothe citizen her entire life wrote: “I believe this is a WIN for our city.”

Several residents have also told this paper privately, including a local woman at the September town hall, that they believe the decisions were made before the community knew anything was planned. That is their belief, and it is part of why the public meetings have been as heated as they have been.

Whatever side residents take, the argument itself has happened in public: a packed town hall, on-the-record council debate and months of public comment. It has been uncomfortable at times. It has also been out in the open, which is how issues like this get worked through.

What happens next is on the calendar. The moratorium runs through Friday, October 23. Council meets Monday, October 26, its first meeting after the pause expires, and the pending data center legislation could return then. We will keep updating this story as the process moves.

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