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The Mason County Fiscal Court voted unanimously on Oct. 13 to approve three agreements that clear the way for Meta to build a hyperscale data center campus on nearly 3,000 acres near Maysville in northeastern Kentucky. The approvals, set out in the county's news release, cover a 40-year industrial revenue bond that shields the campus from local property High-resolution editorial news photo covering the Mason County fiscal court approval for Meta's hyperscale campus.taxes, a development agreement and road improvements.
The first phase is a single building of nearly 400 MW and between 600,000 and 800,000 square feet, according to the Lexington Herald Leader. Mason County has zoned more than 2,000 acres around Big Pond Pike for a five-phase buildout of as many as six buildings. Officials call it the largest data center in Kentucky.
Under the bond structure, the county buys the land and leases it back to Meta through a single-purpose entity, Crisham LLC, so the developer pays no local property tax. Meta instead makes payments in lieu of taxes: $5 million a year per phase to county government and $2 million per phase to schools, rising to $30 million and $12 million a year at full buildout.
The upfront community benefits package tops $115 million, including $40 million for Maysville water pipelines and pump stations, a $45 million water treatment plant and a $15 million public safety payment. A 3% energy tax on the campus adds $10 million a year per phase for the school system.
Officials project more than 400 permanent employees, a construction workforce above 4,000 at peak and roughly 2,000 skilled trades on site through the build.
The investment total is where officials diverge. A Meta fact sheet puts the initial capital investment at $10 billion, while attorney Jim Parsons told the fiscal court the first phase runs closer to $15 billion, WKYT reported. The county projects as much as $800 billion across the 40-year agreement.
Power sits with Meta. The company funds the grid upgrades needed to serve the site and buys the electricity, using East Kentucky Power Cooperative's large-load rate that state regulators approved. In August, Gov. Andy Beshear ordered data center projects to avoid pushing electricity costs onto other ratepayers.
"We take seriously the diversity of opinions in the county, and we intend to keep showing up and listening, not just during the approval process but in the long run," said a Meta spokesman, per WEKU.
Baxtel tracks 49 data center facilities across Kentucky, operated by 25 providers, the largest being Core Scientific's Calvert City site at 150 MW.
Mason County just wrote the template other rural counties will copy: trade four decades of local property tax for payments in lieu of taxes, upfront water and road money and a marquee tenant. That is a real bet, and the $800 billion projection strains belief. The structure is what matters.
If Meta delivers, Kentucky's first hyperscale campus becomes its most consequential infrastructure deal. The tax break that made it possible is already under scrutiny in Frankfort.
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