An unidentified company recently requested a specific use permit to build a data center and cold storage facility in an empty building on Padre Island Highway. The building, originally a Walmart, was most recently used to hold undocumented children.

When asked by the Brownsville Herald, both City Manager Alan Guard and Mayor John Cowen Jr. said they did not know the name of the company–how convenient.

Cowen says he shares similar concerns to the public and that while the proposal originally meant to be discussed on August 6, it will now be moved to September so the city has additional time to research.

This comes at an uneasy time for the Valley where a barrage of projects in Cameron County and surrounding areas have put the public on high alert. Eneus Energy (private equity portfolio company of Carlyle and GIC) is planning to build a 2 gigawatt center in Harlingen on 1,800 acres on land and Soluna Computing plans to build four smaller data centers in both Cameron County and Willacy County. While these projects have been covered extensively, let’s quickly revisit why the public is worried about these data center projects by zooming in on the Eneus Energy project for Harlingen.

This facility will need 2 gigawatts of power which is enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes. In order to even do this, AEP Texas will need to build a massive 765kV extra-high voltage transmission line to the region, obviously paid for by taxpayers. Residents are worried that tying this much power to the local grid could increase rolling blackout risks and potentially spike rates from both increased demand as well as to pay for the new infrastructure to build this out. Moreover, the data center will need around ~5 million gallons of treated wastewater per day, which to be clear is not the drinking / tap water we use on an every day basis; however, the sheer scale of the consumption in an area prone to droughts doesn’t sit right with the public.

To be clear, these are the costs of development. For local communities where it happens, it always has and will continue to be uncomfortable. The thing is we can usually justify developments with the benefits they bring. These data centers don’t seem to do that–they bring no jobs or industry. They make us their data closet. Meant to be on the cheapest land in the U.S. as possible in areas where the public won’t cause too much commotion. The $14 billion dollar center is only going to host around 340 permanent jobs (the figure they claim now which will obviously lower in reality). In private equity, they have zero incentive to provide increased access to jobs and if this is the figure they want the public comfortable with, you can imagine the reality will be a lot lower.

At least with SpaceX, we have the ability to become a world leader in something. The top engineers that build and test rockets have to be here. Elon has to be here. And that means something. It really does. Now we have Saronic and we have the ability to again be a leader in something (autonomous boats if you’re unfamiliar). These data centers don’t do any of that and when private equity owned, it’s even worse. For the record, I worked in investment banking for three years at a large bank in New York and have dealt with these guys first hand. If they’re coming to Harlingen and Brownsville, it’s not for any reasons that benefit us.