August 25, 2026 | Mark Luis Foster

We blogged about this earlier but now it’s official: some Rosemount neighbors are about to have a wind tunnel in their backyard. From South Metro Scoop:

Rosemount City Council voted 4-0 on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, to lock in the first phase of North Wind Test’s aerospace campus.

I lived in Rosemount for 15 years and it’s a beautiful city. At the time, there was a lot of caution about anyone building further to the east, given the proximity to the Flint Hills Refinery along highway 52. But those cautions have been long relaxed, apparently, as more and more developments, many of which are HOAs, creep ever eastward. With it comes proximity to industrial expansion.  At issue:  North Wind Test, LLC. The report references the project as the Minnesota Aerospace Complex, or MAC.

Phase 1 is one wind-tunnel building plus two accessory buildings for mechanical gear. A later engineering building would be a North Wind and University of Minnesota project. Later phases sit on an outlot and still have to come back for plats and site plans.

It’s not a data center, but a testing center; and like a data center, the noise was on everyone’s mind:

The closest home or school is 3,250 feet from the property line. The applicant’s study uses MPCA nighttime limits. Staff said continuous noise hits 45 decibels at 2,170 feet from the source. Intermittent noise hits 52 decibels at 510 feet. By the houses it would be lower. Distance is the main buffer. The city can still work with the operator later on hours or more screening.

The report states that equipment is already onsite. You can read the South Metro Scoop article HERE.