Signature Associates

University of Michigan selects Textile Road site for $1.2B Los Alamos supercomputing facility

Posted By: mlive on August 12, 2026.  For more information, please click here to read the source article.

The University of Michigan has officially tapped 144 acres off Textile Road as its preferred site for the $1.2 billion Los Alamos supercomputing facility after months of community pushback on the development.

UM officials previously identified the Textile site, located near Bridge Road and south of the Huron River, as one of two locations for the facility in Ypsilanti Township. The other potential location was the American Center for Mobility campus near Willow Run.

Local leaders, residents and officials have accused the state’s flagship university of “lying” and “not caring about the people” during the selection process.

“They’ve lost their moral compass,” said Ypsilanti Township attorney Doug Winters, who’s previously signaled the potentiality of legal challenges the township could strike if UM moves forward.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor) said the selection was “deeply disturbing” in a statement.

“I have repeatedly urged the University to listen to the impacted community, be transparent, and answer basic questions about the impact of this project. Instead, they have rebuffed these concerns and are ignoring the pleas from residents that do not want this,” Dingell said in a statement.

But UM leaders have heralded the project as an expected boon for economic development in the region — the University Record on Tuesday, Aug. 11, called it UM’s most important investment in research infrastructure in decades.

“Universities like Michigan are built by generations willing to invest in discoveries and opportunities they may never live to see,” University President Domenico Grasso said in a statement, referring to the joint project between UM and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“We have that same responsibility today — to build for the students, researchers and communities who will follow us. And as we move this project forward, we are equally committed to listening to our neighbors, answering their questions and working with the community to ensure we develop this site responsibly.”

A town hall is set for Sept. 9 to discuss the planned research facility at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest. UM hosted a similar meeting in January that drew the ire of township residents for a “lack of transparency.” Community members may email the project team at hpc-center@umich.edu.

As the project moves forward, Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo said UM has consistently lied to township officials and residents. She said the UM Board of Regents is “choosing not to” act in response to the township’s protests.

“Once they make the decision, then they will meet with the community apparently,” she said. “You have to be under a rock to not know how much outrage there is at this.”

University Regent Paul Brown previously admitted he thinks UM didn’t do a good job on working within the bounds of the community’s concerns.

Concerned Los Alamos could become a source of attacks from foreign adversaries and domestic extremists, Winters said the projects makes the area a “scarlet letter target.”

“We have been sold out at every level of government,” Winters said. “They’ve lied throughout,” he added. “They’ve known from day one what they’re going to do.”

The other potential location in the running was the Willow Run American Center for Mobility — a site township officials previously cited as their preference.

University officials said UM invested significant resources in evaluating other sites, including the Willow Run property, at the behest of Ypsilanti Township leadership and other stakeholders before it proved to be too impractical because of complex real estate issues and brownfield redevelopment requirements.

A 2016 agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency, Willow Run Arsenal of Democracy (WRAD) and ACM removed any environmental contamination responsibility from prospective buyers of the ACM property. So, if UM would have purchased the Willow Run site, the school would have assumed no liability or responsibility to clean the site from historical contamination.

Still, the university cited Textile Road as the site best able to meet technical and operational requirements for the project. That includes existing light industrial zoning for the area, officials said, as well as the precedent of the township’s previous approval of an Amazon distribution center on Textile, which was ultimately canceled by the company.

According to UM, the university spent more than a year evaluating sites for the project, including technical, environmental and real estate analyses. The university purchased 124 acres of land at the Textile site in March, adding to a nearly 20-acre parcel previously acquired.

The center will reportedly occupy a small portion of the full 144 acres with the intent of preserving as most of it as natural space along the Huron River.

UM officials said it builds on a long partnership between UM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, as researchers from the two organizations have collaborated on nearly 2,000 scientific publications spanning physics, engineering, medicine and energy over the last five decades. Los Alamos has also hosted more than 120 UM students and hired more than 30 U-M graduates for research roles since 2018.

The Ypsilanti Township development marks the laboratory’s first permanent research presence in the state and region.

The Michigan Strategic Fund is supporting the project with a $100 million Strategic Site Readiness Program grant.

Construction is expected to create about 300 union jobs with more than 200 permanent research positions and dozens of technical roles once the project is complete.

“The innovation economy is changing rapidly, and regions that don’t invest in the technology, talent and research driving that change risk being left behind,” Sandy K. Baruah, president and CEO of the Detroit Regional Chamber, said in a statement. He called UM’s investment a “powerful new asset to attract world-class talent” that will also strengthen “connections between our universities, businesses and entrepreneurs.”