Pacifico Energy Releases Cedar Creek Campus Fact Sheet: No Tax Incentives, Self-Powered, Minimal Water
Pacifico Energy has released a comprehensive community fact sheet for its Cedar Creek Campus — a $2.2 billion data center and on-site power plant project at 382 Earl Callahan Road in Cedar Creek, Bastrop County. The August 2026 fact sheet, titled “Listening to Bastrop County,” is the developer’s most detailed public response yet to community concerns about taxes, water, power, environmental impact, and local investment.
The document is organized around three themes: what they heard from the community, what they changed, and what they commit to. Here is what it says.
Taxes: No Incentives, Full Contribution
The headline commitment: Pacifico Energy is not seeking any tax incentives. Both the Chapter 312 tax abatement application and the JETI application have been withdrawn. The project will pay property taxes in full, like any other taxpayer in Bastrop County.
The estimated annual property tax revenue to Bastrop County and County Road: in excess of $20 million per year. According to the fact sheet, this equates to more than 30% of all current County property tax revenue — a staggering figure for a single project.
This makes Pacifico Energy / BlackChamber Partners the first major data center project in the Bastrop corridor to proceed at full tax rate from day one, with no abatements of any kind.
Self-Powered: No Draw on the Texas Grid
The campus will generate its own electricity through a 710-megawatt on-site natural gas power plant. This means the project is completely self-reliant for power with no rate impacts to Texas consumers and no draw on the existing ERCOT supply.
This is a critical distinction from other data center developments nationally that have drawn scrutiny for straining local power grids. The Cedar Creek Campus is designed to be additive, not extractive, to the county’s energy infrastructure.
Water: The Facts
The fact sheet dedicates significant space to water — perhaps the most emotionally charged concern in Central Texas communities. The key points:
Cooling Water: Sealed and Reused
The data center’s cooling system works like a car’s radiator. It is sealed, filled once, and the same water circulates continuously. It does not keep drawing from the water supply, and it does not evaporate away. This is a closed-loop system, not the evaporative cooling towers used by some older data center designs.
Fire Water: Well-Sourced
Fire suppression water is stored in an on-site reservoir, topped off by a permitted well with a 50 acre-ft/year cap. Actual use is expected to run well below the cap.
Aqua Extensions: Paid by the Project
Pacifico Energy is funding and building a new public water line extending Aqua service to the site. This infrastructure investment provides new water access to other residents in the area as well — a net positive for the community’s water infrastructure. Aqua will only provide potable water service to the campus.
The LUE Comparison
This is perhaps the most striking data point in the entire fact sheet:
| Living Unit Equivalents (LUEs) | |
|---|---|
| This Project | 23 LUEs |
| A comparable residential development on the same land | ≈ 3,000 LUEs |
The Cedar Creek Campus is projected to use approximately 2,000 gallons of potable water per day, against Aqua’s permitted maximum of 6,900 gallons per day for the entire site. A residential subdivision of similar acreage on the same land would require roughly 130 times more water than this data center.
The Campus at a Glance
The fact sheet outlines the physical scope of the project:
- What’s being built: A purpose-built data center campus of two buildings, with supporting site infrastructure, plus an on-site natural gas power plant
- Land use: Only ~600 acres of the 2,842-acre property will be developed. The remaining ~2,240 acres remain undeveloped, and the floodplain is unaltered
- Roads and access: The project is straightening Earl Callahan Road, adding new turn lanes at Highway 20, FM 535, CR 215, and the project entrance. A traffic study is underway to size contributions to TxDOT and County road maintenance. Any road damage during construction will be rectified
Commitments Above the Baseline
Pacifico Energy’s fact sheet goes beyond regulatory minimums with specific environmental and community pledges:
Environmental Standards
- Air quality: Permitted through TCEQ’s stringent air-quality program using Best Available Control Technology (BACT), including SCR and CO catalyst emission controls, with emissions monitoring required under its permits
- Lighting: Dark Sky practices — shielded, downward-directed fixtures, photometric analysis, warm color temperature, and reduced light near property lines and homes
- Noise: Working with the County to set more stringent restrictions than required by County code
- Site layout: Large setbacks, floodplain buffers, berms, fencing, and enhanced landscaping. Stormwater is managed on site
Investing in the Community
- Community land: Approximately 13 acres set aside for community use, with the project working with Bastrop County to finalize desired uses
- Hire Local initiative: Seeking Bastrop County workers and businesses for construction, services, and permanent roles
- Roadway investment: Improvements to support the construction period, plus funding for any required repairs for the long term
- Ongoing commitment to support the community’s priorities
Why This Matters
The Pacifico Energy fact sheet represents something unusual in the data center industry: a developer that has proactively withdrawn all tax incentive requests, committed to full property tax contribution from day one, and published a detailed community accountability document before breaking ground.
Whether residents ultimately support or oppose this project, the Cedar Creek Campus fact sheet sets a new standard for transparency in Bastrop County’s development corridor. It provides specific, verifiable commitments on every major concern — taxes, water, power, environmental impact, and community investment — that the public can hold the developer accountable to.
For a project of this scale — $2.2 billion, with Anthropic reportedly in talks to be the anchor tenant — the decision to pay full taxes and publicly document community commitments is significant. It may well define how future data center developers approach Bastrop County.
Questions or concerns about the Cedar Creek Campus can be directed to Pacifico Energy at media@pacificoenergy.com.
For the full project profile, see Pacifico Energy / BlackChamber Data Center →