Mason County Fiscal Court voted unanimously on Oct. 13 to approve a development and community revenue agreement with Meta, ending two years in which the company behind a planned hyperscale campus near Maysville, Kentucky was kept unnamed (Mason County Fiscal Court announcement). The site covers roughly 2,900 acres, and the first phase is one building of nearly 400 megawatts across 600,000 to 800,000 square feet, per the
Wide aerial photograph of a large-scale Meta hyperscale data center campus illustrating the multi-building layout and utility infrastructure.agreement summary reported by the Lexington Herald-Leader.
The 40-year industrial revenue bond structure exempts the project from local property taxes and replaces them with payments in lieu of taxes: $5 million a year per phase to county government and $2 million a year per phase to Mason County Schools, up to $30 million and $12 million a year at full buildout. Meta's vehicle is Crisham LLC.
Upfront benefits exceed $115 million, and the agreement commits at least $130 million: a $45 million water treatment plant for Maysville, $40 million to $60 million for water and sewer expansion, a $15 million public safety payment and road upgrades. Meta also covers several hundred million dollars in transmission upgrades, barred from ratepayers.
Cost figures do not agree. The county's release puts initial capital investment at $10 billion; attorney Jim Parsons told the fiscal court the first phase would total about $15 billion (WVXU). Parsons called the $800 billion bond authorization misleading, since the county holds the deed while Meta carries the cost and ownership in a lease-back.
Officials project 2,000 construction and trades jobs and a minimum of 400 permanent jobs at full buildout, about 100 in the first phase. Construction should start within three years.
Opposition has not gone away. Households in Meadowland Village Trailer Park were offered $20,000 buyouts that rose to $50,000, LEX 18 reported. We Are Mason County is pressing for the final revenue agreement, and a residents' lawsuit is filed (WCPO).
The deal lands at an awkward moment for Kentucky incentives. The state has never granted tax breaks to a data center developer; legislators created the program in 2024 and expanded it in 2025, and at least one Republican leader has signaled the breaks could be trimmed. The Kentucky Lantern reported the governor's office did not answer questions about state incentives.
Baxtel tracks 49 data center facilities across Kentucky from 25 providers and 180 sites for Meta worldwide; the state's largest is Core Scientific: Calvert City at 150 MW.
"This is a transformational and generational moment for our community, region, and state," said Owen McNeill, the county's judge-executive.
For developers, the template matters more than the parcel. A rural county traded four decades of local property tax revenue for water plants, road work, school payments and 400 permanent jobs, with no debt on its own books. Whether Kentucky's legislature lets that bargain stand sets the price of entry for the campuses that follow.
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