SPARTANBURG — Tax breaks for a controversial $3 billion data center cleared another hurdle this week after a crowded and contentious meeting that spilled into the hallway and at times devolved as residents shouted over each other and councilmembers.
At the Feb. 16 meeting, Spartanburg County Council approved second reading in a 5-2 vote, with Paul Abbott and Grant DeShields voting against the fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement that would drop property tax rates for the massive proposed facility to the equivalent that a homeowner would pay for their house.
At times, Chairman Manning Lynch had to gavel in residents who were shouting and booing while others spoke. Other times, the meeting seemed to pause to let outbursts die down. And Councilman Monier Abusaft encouraged Lynch and officers to remove residents who were speaking out of turn.
The conflict raged as County Council considered how to help finance developer TigerDC’s project: an AI-focused data center proposed in the Tyger River Industrial Park-North, code-named Project Spero after the state’s motto, Dum Spiro Spero — “While I breathe, I hope.”
The announcement triggered massive community pushback, with residents raising concerns about the environmental and financial fallout.
Meeting descends into chaos
County officials are under fire for how they’ve handled the deal with the New York-based developer. The terms of the FILOT — or fee-in-lieu-of-taxes — slash the property tax rate from the standard 10.5 percent to 4 percent for the next 40 years, meaning the county would lose out on 60 percent of revenue from this project that could fund local school districts and public safety.
TigerDC claims the data center will bring in millions in annual county property tax revenue for essential services, along with 50 jobs and indirect economic development. But constituents say local officials struck a deal behind closed doors, and that the data center yields little public benefit.
Toward the end of the more than four-hour meeting, DeShields acknowledged residents’ frustrations and said councilmembers have struggled with this issue.
“You listen to both sides. You try to get the best knowledge,” he said. “I’ve lost more sleep over this than anybody would believe because it is a huge undertaking and a responsibility to sit in this chair up here and make decisions that somebody’s not going to agree with and not going to be happy with.”
The tax breaks must still pass another vote, and some seem open to changing to “no” votes if they have unanswered questions.
Emily Poole, an attorney with the South Carolina Environmental Law Project, told councilmembers she was concerned that not everyone was allowed to speak during the public hearing portion despite state law to the contrary.
She has called on the county to hold a full public hearing for the FILOT in March, but told The Post and Courier she has not received a response to her request.
“It doesn’t make sense why we’d give them (TigerDC) such a windfall,” she added.
The Post and Courier has requested from the county the list of people signed up to speak at the meeting. County Communications Manager Scottie Kay Blackwell did not immediately return call for comment about how the public hearing was conducted.
AI data center will be self-sufficient, developer says
TigerDC has said the Spartanburg facility will be self-sufficient and won’t strain local infrastructure or hike up customers’ energy bills.
Large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water per day — equivalent to the water use of Greer.
And reporting from Bloomberg shows wholesale electricity costs as much as 267 percent more than five years ago in areas near data centers, with the bill often passed on to customers.
S.C. Statehouse policymakers are debating how to regulate these projects, which proponents say support the nation’s tech-focused economy and keep the U.S. internationally competitive.
TigerDC already has a presence in Spartanburg County. It has operated a bitcoin mining facility there since 2022, and has partnerships with local companies like Pacolet Milliken and Lockhart Power.
Project Spero will be served by existing industrial utility infrastructure that is separate from residential systems, TigerDC said in its initial press release. Lockhart Power says Project Spero will not cause an increase in Lockhart’s customer rates.
Despite that assurance, Chris Callahan, an officer at Spartanburg-based Johnson Development Associates, spoke Feb. 16 to tell council he was concerned about what he saw as “a critical issue that has not received transparency or really any of the public disclosure that it deserves.”
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rejected a proposed 200 megawatt transmission agreement between Duke Energy and Lockhart.
“Why did they reject it? Because the proposed cost structure risked shifting the burden of this massive infrastructure investment onto the ratepayers,” he said.
To Callahan, that’s “a huge red flag for the project.”
The developer plans to generate some of its power on-site, partially using natural gas to reduce reliance on the electric grid. Water usage at the facility will be comparable to a “light commercial operation,” TigerDC added. Officials said TigerDC’s proposed data center would use a closed-loop coolant system that uses 12,670 gallons of water.
The data center will have dark-sky compliant lighting, LEED-aligned design principles and comprehensive safety and security systems, including 24/7 on-site security and coordination protocols with local emergency services.
Once approved, construction would begin this year with Phase I operations anticipated in 2027.
