A Canadian data center developer has picked a wooded stretch of northern Mobile County for its sixth American campus, announcing plans for a $6 billion complex that would rank among South Alabama’s largest single private investments — and setting off the region’s latest debate over whether rural communities have any say when the digital economy comes calling.
Beacon Data Centers plans the Calvert Infrastructure Hub on a 650-acre parcel west of U.S. Highway 43 and north of Shepard House Road, between the ArcelorMittal steel mill and downtown Mount Vernon. Only about 95 acres would be developed, with two buildings at the center of the tract supporting artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other internet services. The rest of the land would remain largely undisturbed as wooded buffer.
“The project represents a major long-term investment in the region, bringing high-quality jobs, infrastructure development and new economic opportunity to the Gulf Coast while strengthening Alabama’s role in the future of advanced technology infrastructure,” the company’s website reads.
What Beacon says the project will be
Beacon estimates the facility will support as many as 1,000 construction jobs at peak and roughly 250 permanent staff. The company says the campus will sit within Alabama Power’s transmission backbone, served by high-voltage lines the utility already owns, and that the project will pay directly for the energy and infrastructure it needs — an arrangement the company says is structured so local residents’ bills are not affected and which is subject to state regulatory oversight.
Water has been the most contested question for data centers across the country, and Beacon has staked its pitch on avoiding the problem: the Calvert campus would use a closed-loop cooling system with no evaporative cooling, drawing roughly 7,500 gallons of public water and discharging 7,500 gallons of sewer per day from South Alabama Utilities — an allocation the company compares to the demand of a small office building with 250 employees, used primarily for restrooms and sinks.
The company also promises setbacks of 1,000 feet from neighbors, a footprint touching less than half an acre of wetlands, and no new power lines routed through the surrounding community. Beacon says it selected Calvert — its sixth U.S. facility — for its available industrial land, compatible surrounding uses, connectivity to sufficient power sources and a regional workforce with industrial experience.
Joe Shovlin, Beacon’s co-founder and executive vice president, said the project would be “a meaningful benefit” to Mobile County.
“We’ve taken great care to design this project to ensure that any impacts to neighbors are eliminated or minimized and that there won’t be any utility bill increases for ratepayers,” Shovlin said. “Through our meetings with stakeholders and community leaders, we’ve been able to refine project details to make this one of the best-designed and least impactful projects of its type in the country.”
What residents say
Not everyone in the Calvert and Mount Vernon area is persuaded. In a public letter, a local resident whose family has farmed the area for generations wrote that the project “looms large over our quiet, rural landscape,” and that while the community is not opposed to progress, development should complement — not erase — the rural character that defines the area.
The letter listed water consumption as the primary concern, along with increased traffic, strained infrastructure and declining property values, and called on local officials to require comprehensive environmental and community impact reviews before any construction begins.
The concerns landed on a commission that says it has little power to act. When opponents brought the project to the Mobile County Commission, commissioners repeatedly told them the same thing: the county lacks the authority to rezone the property or halt the development. Only two of Alabama’s 67 counties have any form of limited home rule authority — and Mobile is not one of them.
That has pushed residents toward a different demand: that Beacon put its promises in writing. At a community meeting that drew roughly 50 people to the Mount Vernon Community Center, residents called for legally binding commitments on the company’s assurances — from keeping noise to a quiet hum to providing a succession plan if Beacon ever sells the site. Others urged residents to weigh in with the Alabama Public Service Commission, which has been reviewing how to scrutinize contracts between Alabama Power and large data centers.
“There is a lot we don’t know about water,” one north Mobile County political candidate told the gathering. “There is a lot we don’t know about the effect on power bills. We should not rush these projects.”
What comes next
Beacon held a community meeting on the project in June and says the project remains in a planning, engineering and community engagement phase. Construction could begin by the end of the year, according to the company, with the first building targeted for completion in 2027.
Whether the project lands as smoothly as its marketing promises will depend on details residents say they have not yet seen — and on regulators in Montgomery, since the county government next door says it cannot stop what it cannot zone.