Eagle Rock Partners is planning a $6 billion data center campus called the Big Woods Technology Park in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi, one of the poorest counties in the country with a population of about 11,000, according to Mississippi Today. The developer held a public informational meeting in Bassfield on Tuesday to answer questions from residents, according to WDAM.
The campus would cover about 800 acres near Gum Swamp Road and the Covington County line, WDAM reported. Mississippi Today reports the project is planned as a three-building complex of roughly 2 million square feet, with construction potentially starting as early as 2027. Eagle Rock Partners said it is not requesting tax abatements or incentives, and the company told Mississippi Today it is still in the design stage and working on permitting submissions.
The developer's project website says the facility would use a closed-loop cooling system to limit water consumption and would rely on on-site natural gas generation that still needs approval from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality before it can operate, per Mississippi Today.
Eagle Rock projects the campus will create 200 permanent operational jobs and more than 1,000 temporary construction jobs, according to both outlets. Gary Russell Bass, director of the Jefferson Davis County Economic Development Association, said he initially shared residents' concerns about water and electricity use but became supportive after researching the company, per Mississippi Today. Eagle Rock's Ken Lober told WDAM the company "aspire[s] to be completely transparent" and wants the community, county supervisors and the county engineer to validate the project's claims.
Not everyone is convinced. Bassfield resident Patti Warren told WDAM she is worried about construction traffic and said "the community should have a right to be able to vote" on the project. Jefferson Davis County has no zoning, which Mississippi Today noted gives the developer more leeway to build on the privately owned site.