The outlined area shows the approximately 4.4-square-mile site where Pacifico Cedar Creek LLC is considering a data center campus paired with a natural gas-fired power facility near Earl Callahan Road. (Pacifico/Community Impact
Pacifico Cedar Creek LLC filed a June 24 application with the Texas Comptroller for a project at 382 Earl Callahan Road, Cedar Creek, that would pair an unnamed data center tenant with a multibillion-dollar natural gas-fired power facility.
The application indicates that Pacifico is seeking to enter into a 10-year agreement with Bastrop ISD under the Jobs, Energy, Technology and Innovation Act.
If approved, the agreement would limit the property value used to calculate Pacifico’s school maintenance and operations taxes for the district from 2029-38.
Courtesy Texas Comptroller
JETI review process
The Texas Comptroller must first determine whether the application is complete. Once that happens, the agency has 60 days to recommend or decline to recommend it.
If recommended, the governor would have 30 days to determine whether to support the agreement.
Bastrop ISD would also have 30 days from the recommendation date to hold a public hearing and determine whether to negotiate an agreement.
According to the Comptroller, the district would have to provide at least 15 days’ notice before the hearing.
Both the district and governor would have to agree before a JETI agreement could proceed.
More requests filed
Separately, the application lists a pending request for a 100% Chapter 312 tax abatement from Bastrop County and proposed 100% Chapter 312 abatements from Bastrop County Emergency Services District Nos. 1 and 3. If approved, each abatement would run from 2029-38.
"Additionally, the developer's engineer has submitted two mass-grading permit applications: one for the proposed data center campus and one for the proposed power generation facility," Schroeder said, noting that both are still in the preliminary review stage.
The big picture
Pacifico would not necessarily build or operate the data center itself.
Instead, the company proposes investing about $2.24 billion in the power facility that would directly serve the data center tenant on the same property.
At full build-out, the facility would generate 710 megawatts of power to support about 490 megawatts of data center computing load, according to the incentive application.
Electricity would be generated on-site and delivered directly to the data center rather than passing through the local power grid.
Something to note
Pacifico is weighing its options between Bastrop County and a site in Muhlenberg Township, Ohio; however, a 12-month local moratorium on data center applications was enacted in February.
In the JETI application, the company explained the Ohio site could still be considered when the moratorium expires in February 2027—emphasizing that state and local incentives will factor into its final site-selection decision.
What's next?
Bastrop County will review the two tax-abatement applications and two mass-grading permit applications, Schroeder said, adding that any county tax abatement would require final action by the Bastrop County Commissioners Court.
The requests for 100% abatements from ESD Nos. 1 and 3 are also pending application review.
Community Impact requested more information from Pacifico, but had not received a response by publication.
