Plans for a data center in the Greater Toronto area of Canada have been denied by local officials.

Slate Asset Management is looking to add data centers as a potential use at Steelport, a planned mixed-use industrial development in Hamilton.

The 800-acre site, previously a Stelco steelworks, is located on the shore of Lake Ontario. Slate aims to develop an AI, advanced manufacturing, and clean infrastructure district.

On the project website, Slate noted it is exploring data center uses for a portion of the development, as well as other industrial uses. The former steel mill site reportedly has access to 200MW of grid capacity – with potential for on-site power generation and energy storage.

“At this point, no data center tenants have been confirmed, and no final decisions have been made,” Slate states on its dedicated Steelport website.

However, the city’s committee of adjustment refused Slate’s land severance application to sever a portion of the site for development. The meeting last week lasted more than eight hours due to the large number of people speaking out against the project.

CBC Hamilton asked Slate if it plans to appeal the committee decision to the province, but did not receive a response prior to publication.

Slate Asset Management is a global investor and manager focused on essential real estate and infrastructure assets. The firm has some $12.8 billion in assets under management.

Slate has called the Steelport development a “once in a generation national building opportunity” and “uniquely positioned to be Canada’s most scalable sovereign cloud and compute district and the new epicenter of the nation’s advanced manufacturing industry.”

The site was previously home to Stelco's Hamilton plant (later renamed Hilton Works), which closed around 2013. Slate acquired the site in 2022 and announced plans to turn the site into a new industrial hub.

Slate previously told CBC Hamilton it is participating in a proposal by the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) for the federal government's AI Sovereign Compute Infrastructure Program – which is calling for applications to build a large-scale sovereign public AI supercomputer.

Local press report the city’s committee of adjustment received more than 1,600 letters about the land severance proposal, more than any other project.