$1.3B Data Center Headed for Rural Austin Suburb

The data center boom in Texas is making its way to the eastern outskirts of Austin.

Prime Data Centers LLC wants to build a $1.3 billion data center campus along Farm to Market Road 2720 in Caldwell County, the Austin Business Journal reported.

The Caldwell County Commissioners Court will discuss financial incentives for the project — of which few details are known — on March 12, including three tax abatement agreements and a tax increment reinvestment zone.

While the individuals behind Prime Data Centers LLC are shielded from public records, the owner of the 206-acre site is an LLC with ties to La Tierra Realty, which has been an active developer in the Austin area.

The developers are also linked to “Project Snow,” the code name for an unidentified economic development initiative that commissioners greenlit on Jan. 23, the outlet said.

Data centers, though not major sources of employment, since they’re primarily used to store computer gear, can significantly enhance a city’s tax base due to the substantial investments they rake in.

Data center developments have started to proliferate in the northern suburbs of Austin, with Prologis and Skybox being at the helm of several. The joint venture is making strides with a 146,000-square-foot data center in Pflugerville, with plans to invest up to $548 million in the area.

Last summer, Hutto City Council approved Skybox and Prologis’ $10 billion plan to construct a six-building, 3.9 million-square-foot data center campus. The 159-acre project, dubbed PowerCampus Austin, is slated to become one of the largest economic developments in the region.

About an hour north of Austin, in Temple, Facebook parent Meta is plotting a 900,000-square-foot data center, amounting to an $800 million investment.

While the northern suburbs experience unprecedented growth, Caldwell County is still relatively rural, with a population of about 48,000 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Lockhart, a town of roughly 15,000 people, is the county seat.

—Quinn Donoghue