Is a data center still a possibility for Loxahatchee? Probably.
Despite the Palm Beach County commission’s July 15 decision to block Project Tango, “one way or another, a data center is coming to the Project Tango site in Loxahatchee,” said John Boyd, principal of The Boyd Co., a Princeton, New Jersey, economic development consulting firm that has been involved in the siting of several data centers.
“It may not be a hyperscale one that had been proposed, but a smaller or reconfigured data center on the same site is likely,” Boyd said. “They already have prior approvals.”
Boyd said he has followed the effort to build Project Tango and that he was not surprised when commissioners voted 5-1 to block the proposed 1-million-square-foot data center near Arden, a community along Southern Boulevard.
“There was enormous political pressure from the anti-Project Tango forces,” he said. “They were very well-organized.”
Two county commissioners, Gregg Weiss and Joel Flores, acknowledge the broader fight over data-center development in western Palm Beach County is far from over.
“It does appear that some type of data center will be built on the site,” Flores said.
Data center developers to seek staff approval
Project Tango called for 2,346,564 square feet of warehouse space, 1,032,000 square feet for data-information processing use and 216,000 square feet for minor utility use, for a total of 3,594,564 square feet of developed space at the Central Park Commerce Center, about 20 miles southwest of downtown West Palm Beach.
The first data center of this scale in the county, Project Tango would have housed thousands of servers and pieces of specialized hardware that help to power the AI economy.
PBA Holdings, the Project Tango proponent, argued during the public hearing on July 15 that it could still seek administrative approval for a 200,000-square-foot data-processing facility and later apply to convert approved warehouse space of more than 800,000 square feet into data centers.
That could still result in 1 million square feet of data-center capability, roughly the same size as the Tango plan. And under the current code, that could all happen without either a public hearing or the involvement of the county commission. The county Zoning Division will make that call.
Another property owner at the site, WPG Logistics, is seeking to build more than 1 million square feet of its own data center space, also through the administrative process. It also would convert warehouses to data centers.
“We need to watch closely how this plays out,” Flores said, “but it is clear this is far from over.”
Flores noted that the county staff assured him during the recent public hearing that it would apply the policies that the commission adopted in voting against Project Tango to these projects. That policy stressed that compatibility must be considered when reviewing data center applications and that Project Tango was not compatible with nearby properties.
Commissioners determined that having such a large data center so close to a residential development like Arden and Saddle View Elementary School did not work, given the noise it could make and the amount of water it could use.
But what makes the Central Park site particularly attractive for a data center is its proximity to a Florida Power & Light generating facility, since data centers require considerable amounts of electricity.
Commissioners denied the Project Tango proposal “without prejudice,” allowing the developer to submit a revised application without waiting two years. Ernie Cox, project manager for PBA Holdings, said he was disappointed with the commission’s decision.
“We reconfirmed our commitment to all conditions asked of us and we addressed concerns through in-depth technical studies and analysis,” Cox said. “We remain committed to helping meet the region’s growing critical infrastructure needs and will be taking our time to evaluate our options moving forward.”
Earthjustice, a nonprofit that targets environmental issues, opposed the project, and its senior attorney, Christina Reichert, also represented the Western Palm Beach Community Alliance, which was created in response to Project Tango.
Reichert praised the commission decision, saying it “put the people first.”
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Data centers likely still coming to Project Tango site. Here’s why
Reporting by Mike Diamond, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Mike Diamond, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
