American Heavy Plate Solutions, LLC v. Bitdeer (Restrictive-Covenant Fight Over Ohio Data Center)
American Heavy Plate Solutions, LLC (AHP), a steel manufacturer leasing 9.9 acres of the 100-acre Hannibal Industrial Park in Monroe County, Ohio, sued Bitdeer subsidiaries Erie Creek LLC and Whitetail Creek LLC, parent Bitdeer Inc., and the Monroe County Port Authority on February 2, 2026, alleging that Bitdeer's data center construction on adjoining port-authority land violates a restrictive covenant in AHP's 2018 lease barring the landlord from granting rights to a tenant that would adversely affect AHP's operations without its consent. In a September 8, 2026 order, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas Judge Julie Selmon denied Bitdeer's motion to disqualify AHP's law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, over an alleged conflict of interest, finding Bitdeer had signed an advance conflict waiver and that removing the firm would unduly prejudice AHP.
Why it matters
Shows how legacy restrictive covenants written into industrial and port-authority ground leases are becoming a real obstacle to the rapid build-out of data center campuses, particularly on shared industrial parks where an existing tenant's consent rights can delay or reshape a large construction project. Port authorities and industrial landlords negotiating new data center leases should expect existing tenants to scrutinize, and litigate over, exclusivity and non-interference language written long before the AI infrastructure boom.
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