In a 3-2 vote, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Humphrey’s Peak Properties, the buyer of land for the planned “Project Blue” data center.
The “Memorandum of Agreement Houghton Data Center Project” outlines community benefits goals on behalf of the project developer, Beale Infrastructure.
Under this acquisition agreement the project will use air cooling as well as a water source approved by the Arizona Department of Water Resources, for office operations. The developers also agreed to make “commercially reasonable efforts to match its energy consumption with renewable energy,” according to the contract.
The agreement also says that Beale will donate $5 million towards STEM education and $10 million towards community funding initiatives.
Before the vote, Andres Cano District 5 Supervisor said the most basic question remains unanswered.
“Who is this for? we as a board were never given a direct, transparent briefing at the dais about the end user. When Amazon was reported as out, this board was not told clearly and directly. We have since learned that Meta is out, so I will ask again, who is this for? If you cannot tell the public who this land sale is for, you cannot ask the public to accept the costs,” he said.
Jennifer Allen, District 3 Supervisor praised local efforts that brought awareness of potential environmental impacts.
“People know about data centers and the impact that it has on our water, the impact that it has with TEP and the ACC, those are all now household names as they should have been for a very long time and are increasingly holding accountable decision makers in ways that decision makers for too long enjoyed being, operating kind of below the radar,” she said.
Board chair Rex Scott noted that Beale will pay Pima County close to $21 million for nearly 300 acres of land which the board will determine how to invest within the community.
“This $3.6 billion capital investment in this project is the largest of its kind in the history of our county and will have a positive, profound effect on our local economy just like the proceeds from the land sale, the increased county tax revenues, $58.8 million over 10 years will be used in ways that benefit the public,” he said.
The County has until Christmas Day to close on this sale.
