Flash forward to water and energy bills skyrocketing and while angry residents come to grips with it, the folks behind this deal lying on a tropical beach lighting cigars with $100 bills.

Build the nuclear reactor first then....

So to summarize...

The city bought the land speculatively with money taken from us (ultimately with the threat of force). Since the jobs and sales price are peanuts in the context of population and annual budget, the main selling point is increasing taxes and income for their local utility monopoly so they have more money to do what they want on a whim (because we all know our taxes will never go down). Oh, and high risk of water and electricity availability and pricing going up for the rest of us.

All done within the context of forcibly manipulating the development of nearby Midtown and then walking away from seeing the vision they cast come to fruition. And numerous council meetings and neighborhood residents speaking to them, all the while they knew this was coming.

And now they're all mad one of their own broke rank and bothered to let us know about their pending after midnight vote. Right.

Just to make some diehards mad and throw another wrench in there...

What happens to Bitcoin mining facilities when Bitcoin drops to zero? Or the value gets cut in half?

birdman said:

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Just to make some diehards mad and throw another wrench in there...

What happens to Bitcoin mining facilities when Bitcoin drops to zero? Or the value gets cut in half?

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Or quantum computers make these facilities obsolete?

The mining company goes bankrupt, and we are on the hook for all those utility improvements.

nthomas99 said:

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So to summarize...

The city bought the land speculatively with money taken from us (ultimately with the threat of force). Since the jobs and sales price are peanuts in the context of population and annual budget, the main selling point is increasing taxes and income for their local utility monopoly so they have more money to do what they want on a whim (because we all know our taxes will never go down). Oh, and high risk of water and electricity availability and pricing going up for the rest of us.

All done within the context of forcibly manipulating the development of nearby Midtown and then walking away from seeing the vision they cast come to fruition. And numerous council meetings and neighborhood residents speaking to them, all the while they knew this was coming.

And now they're all mad one of their own broke rank and bothered to let us know about their pending after midnight vote. Right.

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Which, as I think about it, begs the question...

Would this deal come together in the private sector? Would a private land owner accept $30M without the allure of taxes and utility income? This doesn't seem to be the highest and best use of prime real estate so close to Hwy 6. Residential, retail, or light industrial would seem much more appropriate use. I'd think the land would be zoned this way if the overlords weren't blinded with $$$ in their eyes and focused on the type of intervention they should at most be doing in private affairs.

Hornbeck said:

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birdman said:

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Just to make some diehards mad and throw another wrench in there...

What happens to Bitcoin mining facilities when Bitcoin drops to zero? Or the value gets cut in half?

---

Or quantum computers make these facilities obsolete?

The mining company goes bankrupt, and we are on the hook for all those utility improvements.

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This really is sounding like the Simpsons monorail episode with each passing day!

It will make an amazing cyber gaming facility

Mr. Yancy, what did you shoot?

Diddler_44 said:

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Mr. Yancy, what did you shoot?

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42 on the back. Don't want to talk about the front. Whatever my total score, it's minuscule compared to the texts, DMs, voicemails and emails I've received. Wow. You guys have been busy.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

Not sure if it has been posted already, but this petition against the facility is circulating.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-college-station-land-sale-for-crypto-mine?recruiter=1361600206&recruited_by_id=4a613c30-cdf6-11ef-9800-e38e09fd0205&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490760295_en-US%3A4

Just put the data center in Macys. Win win

This city manager is out of touch. Everyone blames council, but its staff that puts these deals together initially and tries to sell it to council. I'm not a fan.

If you are a CoCS voter - the real question for every single one of you : how did your council get to the place that this has made it this far ? Yes - your mayor is older than Joe Biden, but it takes more than a mayor to get to this point. The rest of council should know better. Also - what about your city manager ? This is clearly a losing proposition.

I'll make the point - data centers are for places like Marlin or other small towns who need tax revenue and have few viable options…… I would think that the city would not put themselves, and certainly not their Midtown holdings in that category. Maybe they want to mitigate their efforts taking other properties off the tax rolls ???

I was keeping my mouth shut until I could take a peek at the details. I was wondering why the hell anyone would put a datacenter in College Station when we notoriously tax residents a ton through the inflated utility rates (except those privileged few who fall outside of CSU's fiefdom).

If I am reading page 45 of the proposed budget correctly, the general fund transfer from electricity is around $10 million.

If these guys were seriously going to be doubling the electricity usage, would they be looking at paying an extra $10 million over what they'd be paying in one of the many areas that didn't do the utility tax thing? $10 million per year would be a lot of money to turn down.

But sure enough, we don't have all the information when it comes to utilities. Page 2 (or 975) of the agenda and pages 6-8 of the contract indicate that they will need to negotiate separate utilities agreements.

https://wtaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/CScoun091125DataCenterLandSale.pdf

That's a critical part of this thing. And we have no idea what it will look like.

I've seen how the city does economic development. I've seen the quality of counsel when the city is dealing with corporations. They needlessly wrote off $50k in fee waivers to Viasat after Viasat (specifically Gary Dorris of Viasat) and Brazos Valley Economic Development Corporation were caught submitting falsified compliance information to College Station, Bryan, and Brazos County.

The same staff will be dealing with this negotiation. Maybe they will put together something good. It wouldn't surprise me. But I don't, given their history, have faith that they will do it for sure. They regularly make goofy deals and give away money to corporations for no good reason.

If we had a complete deal, I'd be happy to look at it. I wouldn't be very surprised if ultimately it were something I could support. But right now, we don't have enough information to provide meaningful oversight.

That said, I think most of the arguments I have seen against the sale are not very good. If there are issues with sound, or water, or strain on the state's electric grid; putting the kibosh on College Station real estate transactions are not the right way to address those. The way to address those is with rules about sound, and water, and electricity usage.

If we could get property off the books of the city, I'd like to see that. But we don't have enough information to make a good decision yet.

maroon barchetta said:

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Bob Yancy said:

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Diddler_44 said:

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There are 50 of them in this thread that you haven't addressed. Pick one.

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The irony is so thick I could cut it with a knife. Inside city hall there are many upset I broke the news at all. And to you I'm not being forthcoming enough. I'm not going to scour this thread. If you have a question I'll try to answer it.

Have a blessed Sunday.

Respectfully

Yancy '95

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Of course they are upset. Sharing info gives the serfs time to respond.

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We prefer the term pions. Get it right!

1. Why here ? Why are they buying expensive land inside city limits vs unincorporated rural area ?
Negatives are Increased land cost, increased tax burden, increased regulations,

2. Why here? Why are they selecting a location with known electrical grid voltage restraints versus closer access to 345KV grid?

3. Noise abatement is an obvious issue. What are the acceptable standards? Duration, time of day, decibels, and tone/ pitch? Who will monitor 7/24/365 and enforce ?
What is penalty for each incident and repeat occurrences? Are there legal precedents favoring facility over the public?

4. Heat island impact on adjacent neighborhoods is an issue. Need to fully understand environmental impact of a facility consuming 500 MW/hr and the associated very significant waste heat impact.
Especially if they mitigate the water issue by using forced air-cooled systems. That waste heat then gets dumped into the neighborhoods' local atmosphere versus being cooled by water evaporation.

5. Degraded visibility on adjacent roadways during thermal inversions due to adjacent cooling tower evaporation ( fog).
15K+ gallons of water daily - evaporating in an inversion - fog may become an issue for adjacent houses.

6. Diminished value impact to adjacent homeowners. How will they be compensated? I would not want to buy an existing home adjacent to the facility unless price was discounted.

7.What if company becomes insolvent and College Station is stuck with an abandoned eyesore in a prime location?
Is there a requirement to to post a bond to decommission and green-field the site so it can be redeveloped?

8. Is there a timeline for development so property enters tax base? Concern is it sits in a pre development phase for 10+ years generating no tax revenue or jobs.

9. Does contract allow developer to change from a proposed data center to an alternate project without CoCS permission ? Such as building a large scale lithium battery storage peaking facility ?
Which may have a different set of concerns.

I have major concerns that city staff recommends approving this contract without a single town hall or public hearing on the issue. This has the potential for significant quality of life issues for everyone in the city.

The same staff that recommend a significantly inferior project for the Northgate lot, from a developer with an advisor who was previously a city employee, over a superior project which was not only going to be comprehensive of multiple lots in the area but from Oldham Goodwin, where the money would stay local. Huge blunder.

The decision making there has been lacking, to say the least.

Am I off base? Wasn't the OG proposal for way less money and the stuff people liked about it was stuff the city was supposed to build on the part of the property OG wasn't buying?

I've not understood why people act like OG's proposal was so much better.

I understand many wanted to kibosh the deal so the lot could turn into another taxpayer funded pet project. But the petition and related stuff seemed super misguided.

Captn_Ag05 said:

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I have major concerns that city staff recommends approving this contract without a single town hall or public hearing on the issue. This has the potential for significant quality of life issues for everyone in the city.

The same staff that recommend a significantly inferior project for the Northgate lot, from a developer with an advisor who was previously a city employee, over a superior project which was not only going to be comprehensive of multiple lots in the area but from Oldham Goodwin, where the money would stay local. Huge blunder.

The decision making there has been lacking, to say the least.

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Looks like Mr. Yancy will be attending a Town Hall tomorrow evening at 7 pm at Coopers to address this. I wonder if any other council members will be brave enough to show up.

I think they have to coordinate because if over a certain number of them show up at the same place and time, it's against some rule or law about city council meetings. Anyone know the particulars of that?

Seems like the others could always offer to have their own meetings with the public if having one together is a problem though.

Agreed that there needs to be some clarification regarding council members being able to meet with city residents to discuss upcoming votes. I don't understand why they are more restricted than our state and federal representatives. Transparency should be the primary objective.

VAXMaster said:

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woodiewood1 said:

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If it's such a great deal and profitable to build a data center, why can Prioity Power purchase the property directly from the owner and build the data center? Why does the city have to be the middleman and also the entity holding another huge vacant building if the tenant closes shop after a year or two?

Obviously, PP wants to transfer the risk from themselves to the city AND to the citizens of the city,

The city should totally stay out of the way of private enterprise's decisions to operate inside the city,

Sounds to me there is an effort for the city to assist the landowner who is setting on and paying property taxes on non-income producing property,

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The city currently owns the land and PP wants to buy it from them for $30M. The vote on Thursday is for the city to decide whether to take their offer.

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I missed that. Sell it to PP and let them take the hit if the Data Center doesn't get built or fails after built,

Does anyone know why the city in the early 2000s acquired the almost 500 acres? Was there plan to use it for a park or something else?

Hornbeck said:

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birdman said:

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Just to make some diehards mad and throw another wrench in there...

What happens to Bitcoin mining facilities when Bitcoin drops to zero? Or the value gets cut in half?

---

Or quantum computers make these facilities obsolete?

The mining company goes bankrupt, and we are on the hook for all those utility improvements.

---

The mining companies will be adding quantum computers when they get their error rate lowered, I do know that the RIOT operation in Rockdale has about 140,000 computers submerged in cooling fluid and earlier this year bought 30,000 of the fastest ones available. All of the mining companies are constantly adding faster computers to their operation,

Mining companies aren't going anywhere, A decade from now there will be billions, if not trillions, of business transactions and AI transactions performed using crypto currency, It's a scramble with these companies to get a piece of the pie,

With Chase, the largest lender, accepting bitcoin beginning in 2026 as collateral for loans, the use of bitcoin will explode,

All these mining companies are not huge. There is one in Brenham that is operating with about seventy-five computers and the guy said he is making a living at it,

To me, the buyer needs to incur the cost of any new and updated infrastructure needs of streets and utilities,

I still think there are better locations in the county that don't have the issues of noise and other factors, The city wants it in the retail and residential area so as to sell the land, There is no other logical reason for that site location to me?

I am surprised that Bryan or a private landowner hasn't jumped in with an offer about half of the $30 million to place it off 2818 in the industrial area,

This is a HORRIBLE location for such a thing. What is the city thinking even considering this? I don't even live over there but no doubt property values are going to TANK and quality of life will tank as well. There are better locations away from the middle of this community. Ridiculous.

befitter said:

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This is a HORRIBLE location for such a thing. What is the city thinking even considering this? I don't even live over there but no doubt property values are going to TANK and quality of life will tank as well. There are better locations away from the middle of this community. Ridiculous.

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they can't see anything but the receipt of the $30 million,

Fighting this one isn't NIMBYism like the people who fought the east loop, this is going to affect anyone getting utilities from CSU, and will probably affect BTU electric customers as well

Need to do this in the County and only after they have built their own nuclear reactor to power the Data Center.

THIS:

" they can't see anything but the receipt of the $30 million," That and TAX revenue, for only 45 permanent jobs.

AMD THIS

"The original business park plat, consisting of numerous tracts, would've likely generated hundreds more jobs than the proposed use, over a significant amount of years after total buildout time."

Just looking for a quick buck.

bushytailed said:

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Not sure if it has been posted already, but this petition against the facility is circulating.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-college-station-land-sale-for-crypto-mine?recruiter=1361600206&recruited_by_id=4a613c30-cdf6-11ef-9800-e38e09fd0205&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490760295_en-US%3A4

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Wanted to repost the petition link. If you are a social media user, please share the link there as well.

Do they possibly know something we do not? Is this area rich in Bitcoin? Mayhap we mine it ourselves and then get rich! I'm going to go out there and dig around some and see if I can find some.

ElephantRider said:

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Fighting this one isn't NIMBYism like the people who fought the east loop, this is going to affect anyone getting utilities from CSU, and will probably affect BTU electric customers as well

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With transportation there will always be an element of NIMBYism. In the case of roads, we all know we need roads, transportation and so on but (myself included) don't necessarily want to live next to a freeway and no one wants their land taken by eminent domain.

Many of us understand the need for increased computing horsepower and welcome more datacenters in the US. The difference here is that data centers do not have to go where there is population. there is no need to put one in someone's backyard or the bill of goods sold to College Station taxpayers as 'Midtown'.

I am a fan of a data centers being way outside of population and also having its own power generation. I like the idea of nuclear but an ok with natural gas. There are natural gas pipelines all over.

Natural gas Pipeline Map of the US

Data center is a generic term, each one can be different. It can be mining cryptocurrency, processing e-commerce transactions, routing searches, internet traffic, or hosting websites.

The classic meme is: 'There is no cloud. It's just someone else's computer'. The someone else's computer is often a datacenter.

Why does that petition at https://www.change.org/p/stop-college-station-land-sale-for-crypto-mine say the results are only being sent to the mayor and 2 of the members of city council (David White and William Wright)? What about the other 4? Why not send it to all of them?