New Data Centers Proposed Near Major Theme Park

A 205-acre site just south of a major theme park is about to become ground zero for one of the most unusual infrastructure stories of the year. Three to four large-scale data center buildings have been proposed for the property — and the implications stretch well beyond the site itself.

Data centers near theme parks aren't exactly a common pairing. But the logic becomes clear when you look at what developers actually need: large contiguous land parcels, proximity to robust power grids, and access to fiber corridors. Tourist destinations tend to concentrate all three. The question isn't whether this project is unusual; it's whether the surrounding community is ready for what comes with it.

What's Actually Being Proposed

The plan calls for three to four data center buildings across the 205-acre footprint — a substantial commitment of land for a use that most residents and local officials still associate with anonymous server rooms rather than industrial-scale infrastructure campuses.

To put that acreage in perspective: 205 acres is roughly the size of 155 football fields. A data center campus of that scale isn't a pilot project. It's a long-term bet on a location, typically backed by years of site analysis, power availability studies, and fiber routing assessments. Developers don't spend that kind of capital on a site without serious conviction.

The proximity to a major theme park isn't incidental — it signals that this corridor already has the power capacity, road infrastructure, and connectivity backbone that hyperscale operators demand.

Details on the specific operator or the proposed megawatt capacity haven't been fully disclosed, which is typical at this stage of the entitlement process. But the building count and site scale suggest this isn't a single-tenant colocation play. Multi-building campuses of this size are the signature of hyperscale development — think the kind of footprint that supports cloud infrastructure for the largest technology companies in the world.

What This Does to Local Infrastructure

Here's where the story gets complicated in ways that local coverage rarely captures. Data centers are simultaneously one of the best and most demanding neighbors a community can have.

On the positive side, infrastructure development of this scale triggers real upgrades. Utility providers typically must expand substation capacity, upgrade transmission lines, and sometimes build dedicated feeders just to serve a single large campus. Those upgrades don't disappear when the data center opens — they benefit the surrounding grid for decades. Local roads, fiber networks, and emergency service corridors often see parallel investment as part of the permitting and development agreement process.

Job creation is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Data centers are not labor-intensive facilities once operational. A campus of this size might employ 50 to 200 permanent staff — highly skilled, well-compensated positions in electrical engineering, IT infrastructure, and security operations. Construction, however, is a different story. A multi-building hyperscale campus generates thousands of construction jobs over a two-to-four year build-out, with sustained demand for electrical contractors, structural engineers, and specialized low-voltage technicians.

The real local business activity comes not from the data center itself, but from the ecosystem it attracts: logistics providers, fuel suppliers for backup generators, specialized maintenance contractors, and the hospitality spend of a rotating workforce.

The Economic Case for the Community

From a tax revenue standpoint, data centers are genuinely attractive to municipalities — when structured correctly. The equipment inside these facilities depreciates on accelerated schedules, and in jurisdictions with personal property taxes on business equipment, that translates to significant annual revenue. A large hyperscale campus can generate tens of millions of dollars in annual tax contributions across property, equipment, and sales taxes on construction materials.

The flip side: many states and localities offer aggressive tax abatements to attract data center investment in the first place. Virginia's data center tax exemption program is a well-known example of a jurisdiction that essentially traded short-term revenue for long-term economic anchor status. Whether this community has negotiated similar terms — and whether those terms favor residents or the developer — is the question local officials should be answering publicly right now.

Data centers also tend to anchor further infrastructure investment in a corridor. Once a hyperscale operator commits to a location, competing operators and enterprise tenants often follow. The energy industry impact compounds: power purchase agreements, battery storage installations, and sometimes dedicated renewable generation assets get layered onto the initial development over time. A 205-acre site with three to four buildings today could be the nucleus of a significantly larger technology corridor within a decade.

Sustainability: The Pressure Is Real

The energy consumption profile of a data center campus this size is substantial. A hyperscale facility can draw anywhere from 100 to 500+ megawatts of power at full build-out. That's not a rounding error on the local grid — it's a transformational load addition that utilities plan around for years.

Modern data center operators have made genuine progress on efficiency. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratios — the ratio of total facility energy to IT equipment energy — have improved dramatically, with leading operators now achieving PUE scores below 1.2, meaning less than 20% of total power is lost to cooling and overhead. Liquid cooling adoption, advanced airflow management, and AI-driven thermal optimization are moving from differentiators to table stakes.

What matters for this specific site is what commitments the developer makes on renewable sourcing, water usage for cooling, and grid impact — and whether those commitments are written into binding agreements or left as aspirational language.

Water consumption for cooling is the environmental variable that often gets less attention than carbon. Evaporative cooling towers — still common in warm climates — can consume millions of gallons annually. For a site near a theme park, where water infrastructure may already be stressed by hospitality demand, this is a legitimate planning concern worth quantifying before construction permits are approved.

The local environmental impact also includes noise, light, and traffic — less dramatic than carbon, but immediately felt by adjacent residents and businesses. Backup diesel generators during testing cycles generate noise and emissions that require careful siting and operational protocols.

What This Means for Developers and the Industry

For infrastructure developers and land investors watching this project, the signal is straightforward: the geographic boundaries of viable data center development continue to expand. Sites that would have been dismissed five years ago — too close to residential uses, too far from established tech corridors, too complicated — are now in play as demand for digital infrastructure outpaces the supply of "easy" locations.

The theme park adjacency will create friction in the entitlement process. Expect sustained community engagement requirements, visual screening mandates, and noise mitigation as conditions of approval. That friction is real, but it's also navigable — and developers who invest in genuine community engagement rather than minimum compliance tend to move faster through the back end of the approval process.

Local investment in infrastructure-ready land is accelerating nationwide, and projects like this one are a leading indicator. The communities that get ahead of zoning, utility planning, and community benefit frameworks will capture the economic upside. Those that react will negotiate from weakness.

The 205 acres south of that theme park represent more than a proposed data center. They represent a test case for how legacy entertainment corridors adapt to become infrastructure corridors — and whether the communities in between capture the value or simply absorb the impact.

Ready to explore the potential of data centers in your community? Discover more at [InfraSale Marketplace](https://infrasale.com/marketplace).

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