By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
In the face of significant and vocal public opposition, the Tucson City Council voted unanimously on Aug. 6 to direct City staff to end all negotiations with Beale Infrastructure for the Project Blue data center development and to rescind the City’s intent to annex the 290 acres planned for the site.
Information from Beale Infrastructure said the company’s plans for a multi-phase, multi-site development would have generated 3,000 construction jobs, 180 long-term positions and $10M in annual revenue for the City of Tucson in the first phase.
The company was also in the process of planning two more sites, one possibly adjacent to the Phase I location, and a third possibly in Marana.
The Arizona Daily Star reported Beale issued a statement after the vote saying, “Beale was invited by the City of Tucson to participate in this public process to provide transparency on conceptual plans for Project Blue, which was executed through multiple public information sharing sessions. We are disappointed in the Mayor and City Council’s decision not to pursue this opportunity for Tucson, despite close collaboration with municipal engineering teams on plans directly compatible with Tucson’s Climate Action and Adaptation and One Water plans.”
Opponents of the development gave a standing ovation when the motion to halt the project passed. While most coverage of the opposition focused on data center water use, and opponents’ lack of faith in Beale Infrastructure’s plans to make the overall development water positive, members of Council also expressed other concerns in their discussion.
Vice Mayor Lane Santa Cruz said, “This project does not align with our values, our climate reality, or the long-term economic vision our community has consistently called for. Giant corporations prefer to operate in the shadows, but Tucson is not for sale. We deserve transparency and accountability.”
She also said, “So let’s be real: these data centers aren’t being built to uplift our communities, they’re being built to serve private profit and government surveillance. We don’t need to be scientists to understand that building a massive data center in the middle of a desert is a terrible idea—even though they say this is inevitable, that if we push back, we’re anti-progress. I’m not anti-tech, I’m anti-extraction.”
Member Paul Cunningham based part of his opposition on the fact Tucson does not have a municipally owned power utility and worried a portion of the power development costs for portions of Project Blue could have been passed on to residents.
Mayor Regina Romero cast some blame on the Pima County Board of Supervisors for agreeing to sell the project site to the developer in June. She also said, “As a community, as a Mayor and Council, we need to take the reins of economic development, and the community needs to be our partner in how we decide to create prosperity in our city.”
Tucson Economic Development is Lagging
In his Aug. 6 column, the Daily Star’s Tim Steller reminded readers Project Blue will not be the last data center development that tries to build in Tucson or elsewhere in Pima County. He linked to a newsletter issued by Councilmember Nikki Lee that said, “While I do not have the list of backup sites, I was told directly that this company came into our community with multiple options already identified. Some of those sites are located on federal, state, or unincorporated county land within the Tucson metropolitan area and neighboring towns. Within our watershed. Within the TEP service area. With potable (drinking) water availability.”
He cautioned about the furious tone opponents adopted in trying to thwart the project, saying, “While not wanting water-sucking, energy-draining, and air-polluting data centers is understandable, the angry public response also carries the risk of making us look like we don’t want other new businesses here either. That’s an impression we’re going to have to fight or fix.”
Steller pointed out Tucson has had very few economic development success stories lately. American Battery Factory was, perhaps, the largest in recent years. It was promoted as a $1B investment that would create 1,000 jobs. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in 2023, but the company has struggled to meet its construction timeline obligations. As of its latest timeline extension in May, the DATABEX project database reported site work permits were still in review with the City. (AZBEX: Dec. 7, 2022; Jan 31, 2023)
Other economic development black eyes Steller touched upon were the failed Vector Space Systems Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility that was supposed to build and launch micro-satellites in the Pima County Aerospace, Defense and Technology Business and Research Park, the failure of autonomous truck company Tu Simple, and Worldview Enterprises Headquarters and SpacePort, co-founded by now-Senator Mark Kelley for high-altitude tourism and payload transport, which has never met its initial goal of providing 400 jobs since the project was announced in 2016.
Steller said, “We need some wins, even if data centers aren’t our thing.”
He urged the Mayor and Council, along with the Board of Supervisors, to focus on governing Tucson well and to ensure infrastructure matters like roads and transportation, code enforcement and similar issues are sufficiently well-managed to make sure the area maintains a welcoming image for the kinds of businesses it does want.
On the job
Project Blue Phase I, Tucson
Volume: $1.2B
Owner/Developer: Pima County/Beale Infrastructure
Design Firm: N/A
GC: N/A
Project ID: 7107
IN THE DATABASE
Project Blue Reclaimed Water Line: #7216
American Battery Factory Gigafactory (Project Flag): #5214
Vector Space Systems HQ & Manufacturing Facility: #533
Worldview Enterprises Headquarters and SpacePort Tucson: #343