What we know about the $12 Billion data center being planned for West Feliciana Parish
Hut 8, a bitcoin miner headquartered in Miami, is planning to build a massive AI data center in West Feliciana Parish.
The company will invest $2.5 billion to develop the first phase of the project and the data center’s tenants will invest an additional $10 billion in computers and equipment, bringing the total initial investment to about $12.5 billion.
The news follows up on the recent announcement that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is planning to build a $10 billion AI data center in Richland Parish. Both projects are part of a larger move by state officials to position Louisiana as a hub for AI innovation.
“This is our new oil boom in Louisiana,” West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard tells Daily Report.
The first phase of the project will see two 450,000-square-foot facilities constructed by the end of 2025, and the second phase will see additional facilities constructed by the end of 2026. The Meta data center, by comparison, will not be completed until 2030.
The Hut 8 data center will be constructed on 107 acres in the southeastern corner of West Feliciana Parish. Havard says the project will move much faster than the Meta project in part because of the parish’s existing infrastructure and power availability.
In Richland Parish, Entergy will need to build new power generation facilities to support Meta’s data center. The Hut 8 data center’s proximity to Entergy’s River Bend Nuclear Generating Station near St. Francisville means it can draw on the power plant’s already available excess capacity, significantly accelerating the project’s timeline.
The first phases of the project will require about 300 megawatts of power, though future phases will naturally demand greater resources.
Havard says,
This particular piece of land is really the perfect fit,
The project is expected to create hundreds of direct new jobs and support between 1,500 and 2,000 construction jobs during peak construction. Hut 8 has committed to sourcing labor and materials locally whenever possible.
According to Havard, the project will be a boon not only for his parish but also for the entire region. Because West Feliciana Parish has a moratorium in place on the development of new subdivisions, it stands to reason that neighboring parishes will benefit from spillover growth as workers and their families seek housing nearby.
Havard says,
A rising tide lifts all boats,
It’s worth noting that state officials have yet to formally announce the project, as West Feliciana Parish’s Planning and Zoning Commission still needs to approve Hut 8’s building permit. Officials will consider the permit at the commission’s Jan. 6 meeting, and Havard says he’s fairly confident it’ll be approved.
And while the data center’s future tenants have not yet been revealed, Hut 8’s stock rallied late last week amid rumors that the facility is part of Meta’s plans for further data center expansion in Louisiana.
A settlement agreement has received preliminary approval in a class action lawsuit over an Interstate 12 median wall that may have worsened flooding in East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes during the historic 2016 flood.
The lawsuit was filed in January 2017 by a group of plaintiffs that includes the cities of Denham Springs and Walker. The defendants named in the lawsuit include the Department of Transportation and Development and a handful of construction and engineering firms.
The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants failed to perform hydrologic testing and modeling prior to designing and installing the 5-foot concrete median crash barrier along a 19-mile stretch of I-12 as part of a larger interstate widening project. Those failures allegedly caused floodwaters to back up, increasing the amount of water that flooded nearby homes and businesses.
The plaintiffs alleged that tens of thousands of people were harmed by the defendants’ negligence, while the defendants contended that the 2016 flood was an “act of God” that could not have been prepared for and that the median wall complied with applicable standards.
After spending more than five years in discovery, the parties have now concluded that an injunctive relief settlement is the “most practical and efficient solution for class relief,” according to documents filed in state court late last week.
That settlement will see $21,350,000 paid into a fund to be set up and administered by DOTD to be used for revisions to the median wall as well as other flood relief measures. DOTD will report to the court and the parties involved every year for five years regarding the results of its work. The settlement does not seek actual damages for individuals.
The defendants participating in the settlement are DOTD, ABMB Engineers Inc. (now known as Stantec Consulting Services Inc.), Evans-Graves Engineers Inc., Gilchrist Construction Co. LLC, James Construction Group LLC and Volkert Inc. GEC Inc., another of the defendants named in the lawsuit, is not participating in the settlement and remains a viable defendant.
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What we know about the $12 Billion data center being planned for West Feliciana Parish, source
