Beale Infrastructure Withdraws Application for Major Oklahoma Data Center Project
March 31, 2026
A significant data center development plan in Oklahoma has been halted following sustained local opposition, highlighting the growing challenges of site selection for critical digital infrastructure in communities across the United States.
Beale Infrastructure, a developer backed by the private credit firm Blue Owl, has formally withdrawn its rezoning application for a proposed data center campus in Coweta, Oklahoma. The project, known as ‘Project Atlas,’ is now definitively canceled, according to a statement from the City of Coweta, which confirmed that related items would not be considered at any future city council meeting. “In plain terms, no re-zoning means Project Atlas is not moving forward in Coweta,” the city’s announcement stated.
The withdrawal marks the end of a contentious proposal that envisioned a substantial campus on a 270-acre site along State Highway 51B. The initial plan included at least one phase, with the potential for three additional phases, each encompassing approximately 200,000 square feet of data center floor space. The project had already encountered significant regulatory headwinds, failing to secure a recommendation for approval from the city’s planning commission in January.
Online reaction to the news has been largely celebratory among local opponents. Members of a public Facebook group originally formed to oppose the project have expressed jubilation. The group has since redirected its focus, renaming itself to target Coweta City Manager Julie Casteen. This shift followed an open records request that revealed Casteen had characterized anti-data center advocates as “just not very smart and can’t accept change,” a comment for which she later apologized.
Both Beale Infrastructure and the City of Coweta had attempted to mitigate community concerns through dedicated project websites and outreach, but these efforts proved insufficient to overcome the organized opposition.
The collapse of Project Atlas underscores the complex landscape for data center development, where state-level incentives and broad demand for capacity increasingly clash with localized concerns over land use, resources, and community character. For Beale Infrastructure, the focus shifts to its other projects, including its ‘Project Pilot’ in De Soto, Kansas, and potential developments outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. The majority of Oklahoma’s existing data center inventory remains concentrated around the Oklahoma City area.
Source: datacenterdynamics
