SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Residents are pushing back against a proposal to build a $3 billion data center along Highway 290 in Spartanburg County.

Upstate New York-based company, TigerDC, unveiled plans earlier this year to build an AI-focused data center in the Tyger River Industrial Park in Moore. The project is codenamed “Project Spero” after the state’s motto, Dum Spiro Spero, meaning “While I breathe, I hope.”

The expansion would mark the company’s second investment in Spartanburg County following the opening of its Bitcoin mining facility in 2022.

Since the project’s announcement, a Facebook group called ‘No Data Centers in Spartanburg’ has garnered nearly 3,000 members and is promoting an online petition to stop the project’s approval. So far, the petition has roughly 4,000 signatures.

“These data centers are a threat to our local infrastructure, consuming enough energy to power a medium- sized city,” the petition reads. “There is community concern on how these centers will affect our environment when it comes to water usage, air pollution, and how these emissions will be removed so they do not cause harm to the surrounding community.”

Despite crowded public turnout and frequent outbursts from those in attendance, five members of the seven Spartanburg County Council members voted to approve the proposal in its second reading on Feb. 16 — Monier Abusaft, Jessica Coker, Manning Lynch, Bob Walker and Jack Mabry.

“How our County Council can see HUNDREDS of their constituents showing up in person to voice their opposition to a project coming to our communities and they still voted to move it forward is beyond me!!” wrote Eric Allison, the Facebook group’s public admin. “That was all the PROOF I needed to see and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this issue of data centers coming to our communities MATTERS to the people of Spartanburg!!”

Council members are considering whether to allow the company to pay a reduced fee (fee-in-lieu-of-taxes or FILOT) of 4% instead of a standard property tax rate of 10.5% for the next 40 years.

“FILOT was great when incentives were needed, textiles gone and it attracted automotive. Now we are a highly competitive market. We should be milking higher tax rates forever out of the data centers….” wrote one member of the Facebook group opposing the data center.

TigerDC claims the project would bring an estimated $250 million in tax revenue over the course of 30 years.  

“Project Spero will not cause an increase in Lockhart’s customer rates,” said a representative of Lockhart Power. “Furthermore, the facility is being served through existing industrial electrical infrastructure, plus enhancements to that infrastructure that are being funded entirely by the Project, resulting in a more robust electrical grid.”

On Thursday the company released a statement pledging full compliance with the state Senate’s Data Center Development Act. The bill would:

• Require companies to obtain a state-issued permit rather than allowing counties to exercise development authority that could pose strains on the state’s power grid
• Introduce targeted incentive structure for the use of underutilized, abandoned, or vacant industrial or commercial property where redevelopment is complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination
• Regulatte newly permitted data center financial assurances, water usage, locations and infrastructure costs.

“This is not about the minimum required by law,” said Jerry Tang, CEO of TigerDC. “This is about setting a benchmark for how critical AI and digital infrastructure should be developed in South Carolina. A $3 billion private investment has the potential to be transformational for South Carolina’s economic growth — strengthening the tax base, supporting infrastructure, and positioning the state as a leader in next-generation technology. We are committed to working alongside local and state leaders who want to responsibly kickstart that kind of change.”

State Senators Lee Bright and Shane Martin are slated to attend and speak at the Spartanburg County Council’s third and final reading scheduled for March 16 at 5:15pm inside the Spartanburg County Council Chambers.