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Posted on 07/31/2026 2:45:57 PM PDT by dynachrome
The Clarksville City Council has approved the issuance of billions of dollars of bonds to support a data center currently under construction.
On Thursday, the council unanimously approved two ordinances for taxable industrial development revenue bonds.
The first ordinance was for up to $50 billion in industrial bonds to Hatchbo LLC, and the second ordinance was for up to $5 billion in industrial bonds to SF ARK1 LLC, which is Serverfarm.
Serverfarm, the company behind the future data center, says its $6.6 billion investment includes the major mechanical and electrical systems needed to support long-term operations.
(Excerpt) Read more at nwahomepage.com ...
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What could go wrong?
Hmmm... Each local citizen will owe $5,000,000 if the bonds head to the toilet...
Residents there may want to move to a nearby community—the property taxes may start skyrocketing.
It is better to be early than to be late.
The city is not issuing the bonds. The bonds are to be repaid by the private companies, not by Clarksville taxpayers, and the city’s general fund is not pledged to repay them.
Used to live near there.
You’ve got to spend money to make money! /half-joking
When will the bubble pop?
How much actually goes to the city?
That’s less clear.
The largest item—the $548 million in PILOT payments—would be distributed according to agreements among the city, county, school district, and other local taxing entities. It is not all city revenue. Under Arkansas law, PILOT payments generally must be at least 35% of the property taxes that otherwise would have been owed, making them an incentive in exchange for locating the project there.
So the City of Clarksville itself would receive only a portion of that $548 million.
What else does the city hope to gain?
Besides the direct payments, supporters cite:
thousands of temporary construction jobs,
permanent operations and maintenance jobs (though data centers typically employ relatively few workers once operating),
increased business for hotels, restaurants, contractors, and suppliers during construction,
additional utility revenue,
broader economic activity from related businesses.
Why are some residents opposed?
Critics argue that:
the PILOT payments are substantially less than full property taxes would have been,
data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and water,
permanent employment is relatively small compared with the size of the investment,
infrastructure costs and utility impacts could offset much of the financial benefit.
Putting the numbers in perspective
If the developer’s estimate is correct:
Total community benefit: about $558 million over 30 years
Average annual benefit: about $18.6 million per year
That does not mean the City of Clarksville receives $18.6 million each year—it’s the estimated total economic package spread across local governments and community investments.
Electric power won’t be a problem. Only 40 miles or so from a nuclear power plant near Russelville.
Your analysis has no downside information.
What happens if the project fails?
What happens if the project has massive cost overruns?
etc etc etc....
What?!?! That’s criminal malfeasance!!
See post 12.
Without some worst case analysis it is impossible to evaluate this.
Pushed the button too fast.
1) That is very near where my great grandparents lived about 140 years ago. They were dirt farmers, poor as possible.
2) The 30yo daughter will probably be involved in building the networking for the data center, meaning she’ll drive 5hrs every Monday and come back 5hrs every Friday, by company protocol.
According to the report The extra demand on electricity and water will be paid by the data center.
Since we need data centers to be built here in USA IF, Big IF those data centers will pay for the extra demand on elec and water
better we build them than china
About electricity see my post #11
Whooppee!! Happy times are here again.
Here is an article that discusses the downsides of AI development without hysteria—just a hard look at the numbers:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/ai-bear-case-what-skeptics-get-right-and-wrong
The top financial risk:
“Spending is running years ahead of payback, and every hyperscaler is building as if the return has already been proven. It isn’t yet. What is crucial is that you can be right about the fundamentals and still pay far too much for them.”
How would that affect this community if the business model fails?
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