Quantum Computing Center Creates Opportunity, Draws Neighborhood Ire

By Collin MacLeish

What was once an empty field where neighborhood kids played baseball will soon contain technology once thought impossible. 

Residents along Blossom Street couldn’t believe it when Berlin-based Siegfried Industries announced plans to construct a 100,000-square-foot quantum computing data center in their backyard.

The company says it will revolutionize the city. Neighbors want to put a stop to it.

Nuani Mokolo leads the Blossom Street Neighborhood Alliance, which formed not long after Siegfried acquired the sprawling empty field behind their homes.

Mokolo, alongside over a dozen neighbors, said the plans fly in the face of many of the things that attracted them to the area in the first place. Some have lived in the area their entire lives.

Many of the homes along Blossom Street, located north of Bowling Green city limits and west of Plum Springs, were built in the early 2030s in anticipation of projected population growth in the area. 

Siegfried’s proposed center would be one of the only industrial projects in the area.

“A nice, quiet neighborhood, plenty of green space, beautiful homes, kind neighbors,” Mokolo said. “But we’re afraid the new center is going to change things drastically.”

Along with a culture change, many residents fear the value of their homes will see a steep decline once a major industrial project sits next door.

Members of the alliance descended on Thursday’s Bowling Green Unified Government Planning Commission meeting to air their grievances but were left unsatisfied.

The neighborhood along Blossom Street, while zoned for residential lots, sits adjacent to an industrial zone now owned by Siegfried.

“We understand the confusion this creates for many of you,” Commissioner Alice Steel told attendees. “But, as it stands, we have no legal standing to deny the plan put forth by Siegfried.”

Western Kentucky University, the former landowner, sold the property to Siegfried for roughly $700,000 and a partnership with the WKU Innovation Campus.

That agreement means WKU students will be given opportunities to work and learn alongside Siegfried employees at the center, something only a handful of universities offer in the U.S.

Quantum computing centers like the one proposed by Siegfried are rare but have grown in prominence with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and android labor.

Facilities enable wireless computation for such technologies, allowing your robot shopkeeper or lineworker to process real-time information. 

Researchers can also use that computational power for various analyses — genetics, molecular structures, advanced physics and more.

“The cure for cancer, the answer to energy scarcity, the ability to close a human organ, all of these innovations would fundamentally change humanity,” said Siegfried’s Research Lead Heinrich Erlanger. “If those technologies are possible, quantum computing will be what unlocks them.”

Erlanger compared quantum computing to a microscope. A person’s vision is magnified thanks to a microscope, allowing them not just to see a whole object but also the atomic interactions that keep it together.

Similarly, quantum computers allow researchers’ analyses to be “magnified,” in a sense. 

A researcher could ask a quantum-powered artificial intelligence to find how many hydrogen atoms are found in an apple, and the machine would give an answer and proof within seconds, much faster than even the most powerful personal computer.

“Such power and ability is not easy to maintain,” Erlanger said. “The environment has to be perfect; the facility has to be specially designed. However, every dollar invested into a project like this results in incredible returns, both financially and scientifically.”

Unified Government officials have already earmarked $1.2 million for infrastructure upgrades along Blossom Street to help prepare the site for its high-tech role. 

Erlanger said those kinds of promises, as well as the city’s access to Nashville, is what made Bowling Green an attractive place to expand into.

Lawyers representing Siegfried also suggested during Thursday’s commission meeting that a micro-nuclear reactor would benefit both the facility and the city in the long run, laying the groundwork for another major project at the behest of the company.

However, this talk of investment and return looks very different for Blossom Street residents.

“I know this can do a lot of good for the community, but the ones of us who live nearby will give up parts of our lives for this,” Mokolo said. “I used to love starting my day with a cup of coffee on my back porch, watching the deer graze, and now I’ll have to sip my cup while looking at a concrete wall.”

Mokolo also expects years of construction, noise and traffic as the facility comes together as well, and the inconvenience means her home could sell for less if she decides to cut her losses. The facility itself may also become a noise nuisance once machinery is up and running.

“I want these great innovations, the cancer cures, the genetic breakthroughs,” Mokolo said. “But I wish we had some kind of say in it, rather than an international company coming in and saying, ‘You’ll have to give this up for our work to continue.’ I wish city leaders put more value in what their residents say and less in what potential investors want.”