Massive $9.7 billion data center proposed near LaGrange

The campus will have its own electrical substation, according to the filing, which is typical of many data centers operating at high capacities. Each building within the project will be 252,000 square feet, slightly larger than the size of a Walmart superstore. The whole campus will span 1.5 million square feet and use up to 600 megawatts of electricity.

A single megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes. At a total capacity of 600 megawatts, the project as proposed would use as much power as about 450,000 houses.

The project is designed to meet the increasing demand for digital infrastructure, according to a news release from the development team. It is one of several large-scale data center projects that have been proposed in metro Atlanta over the last year to build more computer server storage space to power the internet, cloud services and artificial intelligence.

Plans for sprawling data centers have been pitched in Barrow, Coweta and Newton counties, among others.

And Project West is not the only project developers pitched last week.

Thursday, a DRI for a large-scale data center near Cordele was filed. Dubbed “Project Splice,” preliminary plans call for seven buildings at 300,000 square feet each. It will operate at a capacity of 500 megawatts, according to Crisp County Planning Director Mickey Dunnavant.

By the middle of last year, data center construction increased 76% in Atlanta compared with the same time in 2023, the most among any of North America’s eight primary data center markets, according to research from real estate services firm CBRE.

Leading the Project West development is property owner Joshua Harrelson, a longtime resident of LaGrange who has served as a board member of the Troup County Chamber of Commerce, according to the release. He is working with a team of data center developers, though he did not disclose the name of the firm.

The data center will generate 570 jobs with an average annual salary of $80,000, according to a study cited in the news release that was conducted by Flowery Branch consulting firm Economic Impact Group LLC. However, most large data centers of this size typically employ a couple dozen on-site skilled jobs, while creating hundreds of temporary construction jobs.

It will contribute $762 million of net economic benefit to the city, county and local schools.

With an estimated investment of $9.7 billion, Project West far surpasses Troup County’s Kia Plant in West Point that began operations in 2009, which Kia says now represents a $2.8 billion investment. But it will employ a fraction of the workers — the Kia plant has 2,700 employees and has supported thousands of other jobs with suppliers in the west Georgia region.

The parcels are currently located in unincorporated Troup County, but the DRI said there is a request for the property to be annexed into the city of LaGrange.

The first phase of the project is estimated to be completed in 2028, according to the filing. The second and third phases will follow in 2030 and 2033, respectively.

Harrelson said he has owned the land since 2014, and has added to it over the past several years. He and his wife have always pondered ways that they could use this land to make an impact on the community, he said.

“We sat down as a family and said, ‘Are people going to know us for owning 500 acres and hunting and fishing and enjoying that, or are they going to know us for what we did for the community?’ ” Harrelson said. “That’s at the heart of what we’re doing.”

About three years ago, they took this thought more seriously. They explored a number of options and discussed them with the city. One was working with a developer to bring housing to the land, but there were concerns from the city about stressing the local infrastructure and services like water, sewer and the school system.

Harrelson landed on the idea of data centers as the right path about two years ago, and put together the full deal a few months ago. There is a great need in the community for good jobs and greater tax revenue, he said, and he sees this project as a way to help to fulfill those needs.