An AI data center proposed for the western suburbs will be considered by the Palm Beach County Commission in July. But even if the center is approved, could a newly filed lawsuit derail the project, anyway?
WPB Logistics, a real estate development firm, recently filed a lawsuit against PBA Holdings, the company trying to bring the data center to Loxahatchee.
The data center proposal is known as Project Tango, but the identity of the company planning to use the center is a secret. Educators and families in western Palm Beach County have raised health and safety concerns about the plan.
In a Palm Beach County Circuit Court lawsuit filed June 5, WPB Logistics and the Central Park Commerce Center Master Association claim the data center zoning request violates a land purchase contract between them and PBA Holdings.
The request will allow PBA Holdings to build a larger data center on the site than now permitted.
The complaint said PBA Holdings is pursuing the data center request without WPB Logistics’ “consent or cooperation and to the detriment of the entire property’s development.”
The lawsuit asks a judge to issue an emergency order to stop the zoning request and PBA Holdings’ “relentless interference” with property rights.
Attorneys for WPB Logistics and PBA Holdings declined to comment.
Details of the AI data center deal now spilling into a nasty courthouse fight
The dispute goes back to a 2021 contract between WPB Logistics and PBA Holdings, and the future of the 203-acre site along the north side of Southern Boulevard west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road.
PBA Holdings is a Loxahatchee-based company led by rock mining executive Enrique Tomeu of Palm Beach Aggregates, according to filings with the Florida Division of Corporations.
WPB Logistics, an affiliate of the Atlanta-based TPA real estate firm, paid PBA Holdings $36 million for 60 acres in 2023. WPB Logistics plans a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse and office complex there, the complaint said.
After the sale of the parcel, the companies created the Central Park Commerce association. Then they began work to divvy up the rest of the 200-plus-acre site.
PBA Holdings, which the suit said first eyed a 260,000 square foot data center, was responsible for obtaining county approval for another WPB Holdings warehouse/office complex on the site.
But then PBA Holdings did something else: The company asked the county for permission to build a 1.8-million square foot data center instead, the lawsuit said.
WPB Logistics claims this move took place without its blessing, even though the purchase contract requires both sides to work together on zoning requests.
On April 3, a PBAH representative even wrote Palm Beach County zoning director Wendy Hernandez, stating that WPB Logistics didn’t need to provide the OK for zoning requests, according to the lawsuit. The letter is attached to the complaint.
WPB Logistics’ lawsuit said the letter “actively misrepresented to the county” details of their deal with PBA Holdings.
The larger data center takes away from the square footage needed for WPB Logistics’ planned warehouse/office complex on the land, the lawsuit said.
Making matters worse, the data center is so controversial that WPB Logistics can’t get any developers interested in building the warehouse/office complex on the land it bought next door, “despite receiving entitlements for 1.2 million square feet more than four years ago,” the lawsuit said.
In addition to asking for an emergency halt to the data center zoning request, the lawsuit also asks a judge to order PBA Holdings to get WPB Holding’s input on any land zoning request.
What’s the status of the data center size now?
PBA Holdings’ proposed size for the data center keeps changing.
At one point, it was 1.8 million square feet. More recently, PBA Holdings slimmed the size to 1 million.
The data center would support artificial intelligence workloads on a hyperscale. It would house thousands of servers and specialized hardware that rely on water-based cooling systems.
If approved, Project Tango would be the first data center in unincorporated Palm Beach County. It would also be the first of its kind in the county’s western communities.
But Project Tango has faced growing pushback from local leaders and residents who oppose having a large-scale AI-data center rise less than a mile away from the Arden community and Saddle View Elementary School.
The opposition isn’t limited to Palm Beach County.
Proposals to build data centers across Florida have stirred opposition among state residents who say they negatively affect communities by straining power grids and water supplies and causing noise and light pollution.
After a public outcry in 2025, the Palm Beach County commission delayed a vote until July 15.
Staff writer Valentina Palm contributed to this report.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: AI data center land partner asks judge to halt project as sides bicker
Reporting by Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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By Alexandra Clough, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
