Little Rock Port Authority authorizes 400 acre sale of land for $1 billion data center project

In a specially-called meeting of the directors of the Little Rock Port Authority Tuesday (April 29), the board approved the sale of roughly 400 acres of land to an unnamed economic prospect.

The property involves over 380 acres near the 107 acres that Amazon recently acquired. Amazon plans to build a large distribution center employing “hundreds” of jobs, according to local chamber officials.

The new land being sold, for an undisclosed price at this point, will be purchased by Willowbend Capital, LLC. It will serve as a holding company for the transaction between the port and the unnamed buyer.

“This will be another huge win for the port and the community,” said Little Rock Port Authority executive director Bryan Day.

Jay Chesshir, CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, told port board members there were still details to work through with the potential economic prospect before its identity could be revealed.

He said he expected details to be unveiled in the next 60-90 days.

Two members of the Little Rock Port Authority board recused from the vote. They were Tamika Edwards, director of Human Resources and Employee Engagement at Southwest Power Pool, a regional electricity transmission operator, and Keith Harvey, senior vice president and deputy general counsel for Uniti Group Inc., a publicly traded real estate investment trust that works in the broadband and wireless infrastructure space and recently re-merged with telecommunications giant Windstream Corp.

UPDATE: A memorandum of understanding (MOU) posted on the city of Little Rock’s website notes that the project involving the 400 acres is a data center, although the name of the company is still unknown.

The data center would be 300,000 square foot and could include additional buildings and infrastructure. The project is a potential $1 billion investment and could create 50 “high-quality” jobs.

The MOU states:

“Willowbend Capital LLC is evaluating the City of Little Rock for a site that would allow for the construction of an approximately 300,000 square foot data center facility (“Data Center”), including ancillary buildings and infrastructure (the “Project”). The Company anticipates the investment in the construction and equipping of the Project will be approximately $1,000,000,000. Approximately 50 new high-quality jobs will be created as a result of the Project. If the right economic, business, and market conditions exist, it is possible the Company will construct one or more additional data center facilities.”

If approved, the data center company will make an annual payment of $300,000 to the city of Little Rock, known as a “city enrichment investment.” If it adds more data centers, it would contribute another $200,000 to the “city enrichment investment.”

The company also plans to pay for infrastructure improvements for water and sewer needs as well as a cooling tower blowdown discharge dedicated line from the site.

You can read the MOU here.