For months, folks in Mason County knew a big data center was coming but didn't know whose it was. Now they know. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is the company behind the hyperscale project planned outside Maysville, and the Mason County Fiscal Court has signed off on the deals to make it happen.
According to WEKU, the court unanimously approved three agreements on Tuesday, Oct. 13: an industrial revenue bond, a development agreement and road improvements. A Meta spokesman called the approvals "the first step of many."
What's planned
The county's own summary of the agreements lays out the scale. The county is contracting with Crisham LLC, a Delaware company, for a project that could run in phases over many years. The first phase is one 396-megawatt data center and related facilities on about 2,900 acres, and it's forecast to begin within 36 months of the development agreement being signed. Later phases could bring the total to as many as six data center buildings, with each one taking about two years to build.
A company fact sheet attached to the summary puts the capital investment at $10 billion, with room to grow in later phases. Land closings are set to start in November, and the data center is being designed for LEED Gold certification.
What the county gets, and gives
Under the bond deal, the county will buy land outside the city and lease it to Meta, which exempts the project from property taxes, WEKU reported. In return, Meta will make payments in lieu of taxes. The county summary estimates those at $5 million a year to the county and $2 million a year to the school district for each phase, and it guarantees the schools at least $10 million in utility taxes for Phase I. The land now generates less than $29,000 a year in real estate taxes.
The company also committed to at least $130 million in infrastructure and public safety, according to the county. That includes $40 million to $60 million to expand water and sewer, $45 million for a new City of Maysville water treatment plant and a $15 million public safety fee for police, fire and EMS. Meta will pay for all county road work, the cost of bringing power to the site and the power itself. East Kentucky Power Cooperative has a data center tariff that's supposed to keep those costs off other customers' bills, and Gov. Andy Beshear issued an executive order in August requiring data center projects to avoid pushing electricity costs onto other customers.
On water, Meta says the data center will use a closed-loop cooling system that's filled once and refreshed every seven to 10 years.
The court still has more to do. The summary says the court will be asked to adopt bond resolutions, and a petition to relocate abandoned cemeteries on the property is set to be heard at the Nov. 6 fiscal court meeting.
No general contractor has been named publicly. The fact sheet says only that the company "works with their general contractors" to limit noise, light and dust.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is likely one of the biggest construction jobs Northeastern Kentucky has ever seen. The company says the project would support more than 2,000 skilled trade workers at peak construction, potentially rising past 4,000 with later phases, and it named the trades it needs: steelworkers, pipefitters, electricians, carpenters and fiber technicians. After construction, it expects more than 100 jobs at first and more than 400 at full build-out, including electricians and HVAC specialists.
The agreement also calls for the company and county to develop a hiring plan that gives residents a shot at full-time jobs and contracting work, and the fact sheet says the company will work with regional vendors and suppliers when possible. That's the opening for local firms. Before the first data hall goes up, there's a huge amount of civil work coming: water and sewer lines, a new treatment plant, roads and power infrastructure.
With the first phase forecast to begin within 36 months and as many as six buildings planned, this could be a decade or more of work. Contractors in the Maysville area, Northern Kentucky and southern Ohio should start getting ready now: lining up crews, safety programs and bonding capacity for a job this big.