A $17B data center campus called ‘Project Sail’ proposed south of Atlanta

Proposed by a company called Atlas Development LLC, the project’s eye-popping numbers don’t stop there.

The Dec. 31 version of the DRI filing estimated the campus will be worth $17 billion when completed by the end of 2036. That filing said it would generate nearly $1.6 billion in annual tax revenues for Coweta County.

An amended filing posted Wednesday with the Three Rivers Regional Commission reduced the estimated tax figure to about $163 million after reporting by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called the initial estimate into question. That nine-figure tax estimate would more than double the county’s total current annual tax collections.

“The development is a very large development,” Atlas executive Jonathon Ward said. Atlas Development, Georgia Secretary of State’s Office records show, was founded in 2017 and has an address is Whitesburg.

Credit: Courtesy Coweta County

Credit: Courtesy Coweta County

”It’s important to note that just because the (Development of Regional Impact) was initiated, it does not mean that the project is finalized or that the property has been officially rezoned or approved by the board of commissioners,” the county said in a statement Wednesday.

Tax revenue confusion

Ward on Jan. 1 confirmed the $17 billion price tag for the project and the initial 10-figure annual tax revenue estimate, saying it had been calculated by the county.

When asked to confirm the property tax value in the initial filing, a county spokesperson on Dec. 31 did. But on Jan. 8 the spokesperson said in an email that her confirmation related only to what was published in the record, and said the county did not produce the first estimate.

In subsequent communications with the AJC, Ward said his firm produced the erroneous estimate.

Multiple state and local government officials contacted AJC questioning the first projection after initial publication of this figure. At the time, they said the initial figure appeared to be 10 times larger than typical tax collection estimates and should be closer to $163 million.

In Georgia, property taxes are calculated by taking 40% of the value of the property, which would be $6.8 billion for a property appraised at $17 billion. Then, county tax officials would multiply that by the local millage rate, which is 0.024 for 24 mills in Coweta, which would produce an estimate of $163.2 million.

A data center surge

The site plan also reveals each of the 13 buildings will have a power capacity of 72 megawatts, meaning the entire project’s capacity is 936 megawatts.

Few other details were made public on Project Sail, such as whether an end user has been selected for the proposed data center. The project site is along U.S. 27 near Newnan between Welcome Sargent and Wagers Mill roads, about 45 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. According to county property records and the project map, the site is about 831 acres and is split among five parcels controlled by three ownership groups.

Data centers have become big business across the U.S., with metro Atlanta emerging as a hotbed for the fast-growing industry, and Georgia and many county and municipal governments have offered lucrative tax breaks to build here. The high-tech projects are effectively gigantic warehouses that store computer servers that power the internet, cloud services and artificial intelligence.

In recent years, server farms have become one of the most desired uses for undeveloped land in metro Atlanta. By midyear, data center construction had increased 76% in the Atlanta market compared to the same time last year, the most among North America’s eight data center primary markets, according to real estate services firm CBRE.

Proponents say the rapid increase in data center development is a needed investment in critical tech infrastructure, which powers more aspects of daily life with each passing year. These facilities, which can house hundreds of millions of dollars worth of equipment, can also generate additional tax revenues.

But they’re also water and electricity hogs.

The mammoth size of these facilities and their strain on utility grids have sparked concern in communities that feel overwhelmed by encroaching server farms. Nearby south Fulton County amassed seven gigantic data center proposals during 2024.

In neighboring Fayette County, QTS Data Centers is building one of the largest data center campuses in the world on a 615-acre site. The project will require enough electricity to power more than 1 million homes and prompted a recent protest over the impact overhead power lines would have on its neighbors, which was documented in a December article by Bloomberg.

The Project Sail site will need to be rezoned following the state’s infrastructure review, the document said.