More than a year after company secured tax breaks for the project.
Taylor City Council has approved a data center project northeast of Austin in Taylor, Texas.
The data center campus, proposed by new data center company Blueprint Projects, received unanimous approval from the council on July 24, reports the Austin Business Journal.
The data center will be located on a 52-acre parcel at 1601 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive in Taylor and, after three construction phases, will span 135,000 sq ft (12,542 sqm).
The company expects to invest up to $1 billion in the campus over the next ten years, including construction and equipment costs, and for the data center to create between 20 and 30 jobs.
According to Blueprint founder and CEO Yaerid Jacob, the company already has letters of intent with tenants for full capacity of the data center, and has a power agreement with Oncor for 30MW of power. Ultimately, the data center hopes to reach 60MW of capacity.
Jacob previously held roles at oil and gas engineering firm Triune Energy Services, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Bechtel.
Despite receiving approval, the project is not without local objections. Nearby residents have complained that there has been a "complete lack of transparency and meaningful communication" following a community meeting with Blueprint, and the July 24 meeting saw a "peaceful demonstration" where neighbors wore red X's to argue against the vote.
City officials have attempted to resolve some of these concerns, having hired an external company to conduct an environmental impact assessment, which found that Blueprint will front the costs for a necessary on-site substation; would use a closed-loop water system to reduce water usage; and that noise would be mitigated by barrier walls and landscaping buffers.
Speaking on the decision to approve the project, Taylor Mayor Dwayne Ariola said: "It's a concrete room with computer servers in it. ... We're not approving the data center. He's building the data center in accordance with our plan."
Blueprint previously received tax breaks for the project in August 2024, with the company required to invest at least $225 million and create five jobs in order to get a ten-year 50 percent rebate on taxes. The company will also get a 50 percent rebate on local use tax collected on materials used for construction. Jacob has since stated that the company expects to invest $360m by the start of 2027.
Blueprint Projects is also developing a data center project in Georgetown with 35MW of capacity. The company received tax breaks for the Georgetown project, a $160m development on a ten-acre parcel at 1201 Westinghouse Road, in September 2024. The data center is set to span 45,000 sq ft (4,180 sqm).
In April 2025, Blueprint secured investment from Northampton Capital Partners for its data center developments. The terms of the investment - including its value - were not shared.
