Wichita County commissioners on Tuesday heard Haynes Strader, chief development officer for Skybox Datacenters, promise great things for the city and county when his company builds a data center here.
The Dallas-based company announced on Feb. 18 it would build a facility on 225 acres in the city’s business park.
The session before commissioners was just informational, county Judge Jim Johnson said. The county is not involved in the deal.
Strader told commissioners and a packed courtroom the data center would employ between 1,500 and 3,100 people during construction and would use as many local subcontractors as possible.
“Whether it’s grading, fencing, HVAC, electrical engineering, our preference is always local,” he said. “These are great jobs.”
He said construction on the site will start in the fourth quarter of this year, and the first building would be completed in the fourth quarter of 2028. He said construction of four to six buildings is anticipated with full completion in 2032.
Strader said once all the buildings are up and running 300 to 600 highly-paid permanent workers would be employed and up to six other jobs would be created in the community for every job at the center.
“With only 600 people, we’re not going to be taking over your schools. We’re not going to be taking over the hospitals and the roads,” he said.
He said project will generate $8.45 billion in taxable real estate investment and the eventual tenants of the buildings would put in “multiples” of that figure in hardware and technology.
He said Skybox’s tenants are in the top 10 of data center users but did not name any.
Strader said there are misconceptions about the amount of water data centers use.
He said Skybox uses air-cooled, closed-loop systems that use very little water, and the water that is used is recycled constantly in the system.
He said a typical water charge for a data center building is 25,000-30,000 gallons similar to the water in a residential swimming pool.
“I think there’s a huge misconception that we use a ton of water. We’re not here to use your water,” he said.
On concerns about light pollution, Strader said the heaviest pollution would be during construction but once the center is operating it will be “dramatically less than you can see at a Walmart or something.”
On noise pollution he said, “You can be sitting in the room right next to it, and you don’t hear anything.”
Although the courtroom was full, only one person asked a few questions. Commissioners expressed their approval of the project.
“I think the opportunities for infrastructure development, economic growth and, quite frankly, tax relief for residents of Wichita County are unprecedented and something we really haven’t seen on the horizon for Wichita County in my lifetime,” Johnson said.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Skybox executive extolls benefits of data center for Wichita County
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
