A proposed massive complex of 8 to 10 data centers is coming up for a Pima County board vote as soon as June 17, two county supervisors told the Star, but they and the public have been denied key information, including how much water and electricity it would use.
The details of the complex are currently shielded from the public by a nondisclosure agreement between the county and the still undisclosed company that would buy and develop the site. Local officials have simply referred to this planned development as Project Blue.
But the two supervisors who said it would be 8 to 10 data centers, Republican Steve Christy and Democrat Matt Heinz, and Democratic Supervisor Jennifer Allen said they won’t vote to approve measures needed to advance the project until they receive full details about key items including the project developer, and at least some information about its water and energy use.
County officials said they’ll send some pieces of information to the five-member Board of Supervisors this coming week. They have said the project will create good-paying jobs and generate significant tax revenues.
The project is planned for a 290-acre site, now owned by Pima County, that lies on the far southeast side near the Pima County Fairgrounds. The property is north of Brekke Road, bounded by Harrison Road on the west and Houghton Road on the east.
Nationally, data centers are often controversial for using large amounts of water and energy. By some estimates, a mid-sized data center uses the same amount of water as 1,000 households, the Associated Press has reported.
Tucson and Pima County officials have said Project Blue would “phase in” the use of reclaimed water that would be delivered to the fairgrounds-area site by an 18-mile-long pipeline in which the company would invest. The company will also invest in building additional recharge and water recovery capacity for the system, the city said in a news release.
But officials have not only refused to say how much water the project will use, but also how long it will take to get the reclaimed pipeline online or what its total size and capacity will be.
“There is an expectation of some potable use” before the reclaimed line is operating, meaning some drinking water will be used, Deputy County Administrator Carmine DeBonis said.
In its news release, Tucson said it has worked with the project developer on strategies to offset the water use “by making investments in Tucson’s water security by making the project water positive.” Water positive means a business returns more water to the environment or community than it uses across its operations, supporting long-term water sustainability and resilience.
But officials haven’t said how that will happen. Tucson Water officials said the reclaimed line could also be tapped into by residents and other businesses along it, but also haven’t provided details. This investment by the developer will speed up the extension of reclaimed water to this area by a decade, “saving local water rate payers millions of dollars in the process,” the city’s news release said.
This is a new Arizona data center in Mesa (by Meta) with five buildings. A separate data center complex planned near the Pima County Fairgrounds in the Tucson area, to be developed by an undisclosed company, will have up to 10 buildings.
City officials say they plan to annex the land into Tucson city limits once the land sale is consummated and development plans are approved.
Electricity use is also a potential issue, as Tucson Electric Power has said increases in rates and bills have been driven in part by its need to keep upgrading its grids due to growing electricity demand and increasing summer peak demand loads on its systems.
TEP’s 10-year outlook reflects increasing interest from “data center developers and others proposing projects with significant energy needs,” TEP said in 2024, saying it had “engaged in preliminary discussions of potential projects” that could trigger a steeper boost in energy demand.
The utility’s total electricity use since 2019 has risen about 2.7%, but for the next decade, it forecast last year that its total customer electricity demand will rise more than 5% a year.
TEP spokespeople did not respond Friday to Star requests for information on Project Blue.
Secret negotiations
Supervisors Christy, Heinz and Allen told the Star they are generally uncomfortable with nondisclosure agreements. They said full details of the project need to be disclosed for them to feel they can vote wisely.
DeBonis acknowledged the validity of these concerns in an interview with the Star. County officials are working with what DeBonis called the “business prospect” to develop the site to assemble information to send to the board ahead of the scheduled vote, he said.
The board will be asked to vote separately on selling the land to a private buyer and to adopt both a comprehensive plan amendment and a specific plan to allow the project to happen. The 290-acre site’s appraised value is $20.8 million. Both the county and the prospective purchaser have agreed to that price, Debonis said.
Late Friday, Heinz told the Star his understanding is that the county will soon provide the board three pieces of information this coming week.
They include the proposed sales contract with the project developer, an economic impact analysis of the project, and a series of responses by County Administrator Jan Lesher to frequently asked questions about the project.
Friday evening, DeBonis confirmed that information would be released this week. General information on water and energy use but not specifics will be available in the fact sheet, he said. He said earlier in the week he expects county staff will also disclose the type of land use planned for the site when it releases other details to the board.
“There are multiple buildings proposed on this site, and a single user all with the same use,” DeBonis said.
“What I will say within confines of the nondisclosure agreement, it is a multi-building site in the advanced emerging technology segment.”
“The site developer seeking to purchase it, they will build out the site and will lease it to an end user. The site infrastructure and building infrastructure will be constructed by the site development group,” he said.
A board vote will likely be held on June 17, although the actual date for voting won’t be confirmed until Tuesday, June 10, he said. If the vote doesn’t happen on June 17 it likely will happen on July 1.
The project’s exact water use may not be disclosed because the company may consider it proprietary, Heinz said. Knowing the exact number of molecules of water delivered could help competitors know more about the project’s technology and even what company is operating the centers, Heinz said.
“People familiar with the technology can (then) reverse engineer the type of cooling and server” the company will use, Heinz said. “They can back their way into figuring out which exact servers, the computer guts and network the company will use.”
Heinz previously told the Star the project developer planned to pay for building a reclaimed water line to the project site. After the Star reported that, the city issued a news release containing that information.
Christy, who otherwise supports the project, said “If the entire package isn’t fully disclosed (when it comes to the board), I will vote to continue it but not vote to approve it. Before I vote on something, I’d like to know all the details. I don’t have all of them. I’d particularly like to know who ‘s buying the property.”
Allen said the lack of disclosure is “not transparent, and the other thing about these NDAs is that the advantage is obviously in the hands of the company,” Allen said.
If local governments allow companies to negotiate the best deal with different entities in secret all the time, “it gives them all the cards,” she said.
“It is inherently set up so they win and we lose, by virtue of the fact they can simultaneously negotiate with other communities and see who is willing to give the most.”
Two outside observers with longstanding ties to growth and water issues also took swings at the non-disclosure agreement.
“As a member of the public, that pisses me off,” said Tucsonan David Wegner, a National Academy of Sciences board member and a retired longtime federal water official. “We’re screaming bloody murder that we have to have data to make good decisions, but with NDAs I have a big concern about it.
“They will build a pipeline, but we need to know how much reclaimed water they will use. Do we have enough reclaimed water to do that plus all the others on reclaimed water to meet all the demands?” asked Wegner, a former U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official and congressional staffer. “If we don’t have information we’re not informed. It builds distress to the process if you can’t see it.”
Longtime Tucson environmental activist Christina McVie said the nondisclosure agreement raises very serious questions about transparency in government.
“The board represents the voting members of this community. The constituents elect those board members to act in their interest,” said McVie. “People have a right to know what’s going on and a right to express their voice. That’s dependent on accurate information.”
But Board of Supervisors Chairman Rex Scott said he’s confident the information the board needs to make decisions will be forthcoming by the time of its vote on the project’s plan and land sale.
“That’s because of the information that has already been shared, some of which I’m able to talk about, some of which I can’t talk about because of the NDA,” Scott, a Democrat, told the Star.
“Our agendas come out several days before a board meeting. Since 2021 when I joined the board, it’s always been posted in time not only for the board to do its deliberations before the vote but with plenty of time for the public to have a sense of what’s being discussed.”
The office of Supervisor Andrés Cano, also a Democrat, cited the nondisclosure agreement in an email on Wednesday in which he declined to discuss the project at all. When asked afterward to comment specifically on the nondisclosure agreement, he didn’t respond.
Company asked for the NDA
In the economic development “attraction, expansion and retention world,” nondisclosure agreements between prospective large employers and local governments are used regularly, Debonis said. They’ve been used rarely in Pima County, said Debonis, who has worked in county government for 34 years.
This agreement was requested of the county by the “business prospect,” DeBonis said. It was signed by both parties on June 18, 2024, has an 18-month term and can be extended by the agreement of both parties.
“Attracting and retaining companies is highly competitive across the nation, and entering into an NDA is necessary to be considered for opportunities like Project Blue that generate employment and capital investment in our community,” DeBonis told the Star.
City of Tucson officials have signed a nondisclosure agreement with the same company, and “the NDA is in force for the foreseeable future,” City Manager Tim Thomure told the Star in an email.
“These are pretty standard in the industry. (Companies) may not want to disclose to a current community where they located, about potentially relocating or expanding elsewhere,” he said. “They may not want to make it known to potential competitors, what their plans are for location and placements.”
He added, “I understand the need for openness and transparency in government operations. There are circumstances in which there is an NDA. They are rare. We try to balance information that we think the board needs to make a decision with the desires of the business prospect not to disclose.”
Project Blue is expected to create 180 jobs by the project’s third year, in 2029, County Administrator Jan Lesher told the board in a May 21 memo.
Salaries will average $64,000, significantly higher than current average local salaries, she said. Tucson’s median wage for all occupations was $46,450 in 2024, the University of Arizona has said.
During construction, the project will generate 1,024 direct construction jobs and 2,049 additional indirect jobs, Lesher said.
She said the company will make $1.2 billion in capital investments over three years, starting in 2026. It will generate nearly $250 million in total tax revenues for the city and county over 10 years, starting in 2026, she said.
Because of the nondisclosure agreement, all county officials have been willing to say about the project is to cite a specific plan for the property, which lists data centers as one of three possible land uses for the site. Under that plan, it would be set aside for “light industrial uses,” DeBonis said.
The plan was drawn up in April by county staff, the law office of Keri Silvyn, who represents the prospective land buyer, and Kimley Horn, a national planning and design consulting firm with Tucson offices. Silvyn hasn’t returned two calls from the Star seeking information or her comments on the project.
Besides data centers, the other possible uses identified in the plan are light manufacturing and campus industrial park development and “some sort of logistic distribution type uses,” DeBonis said. The latter includes warehousing, transfer and distribution services, according to the specific plan.
When the comprehensive plan amendment and the specific plan go before the board, a representative of the land purchaser and development firm will be present and will be able to speak to the project’s details and respond to supervisors’ questions, he said.
