Clinton leaders approved a tax incentive agreement in January with an undisclosed company proposing a data center that city officials say would make a minimum $750 million investment and create at least 50 jobs, the city said.
The agreement, approved during a special meeting, has only recently become widely known to residents, who have raised questions and concerns on social media about secrecy, utility use and environmental effects, the city said. The project site is on Industrial Park Road, and the city called the proposal the “largest economic development in the history of the city and Hinds County,” according to a city statement.
City officials said the company is not being named because negotiations are ongoing. The city said the project would receive a break on local property taxes through a fee-in-lieu of taxes agreement, a common incentive in Mississippi. There are at least six data center projects in the state, the city said. Records from the Mississippi Secretary of State show the property is owned by CHC Investments LLC of Pearl and that the site previously housed a wiring plant that closed in 2009 and a Milwaukee Tool plant from 2021 to 2023.
The city said Entergy would provide power to the Clinton site. By contrast, news reports say another data center developer, xAI, has sought to generate its own electricity at a Southaven site and has faced community pushback; plaintiffs in a pending lawsuit there allege temporary turbines are illegally emitting pollutants. Mayor Will Purdie told Mississippi Today he believes the Clinton project can avoid problems seen elsewhere.
Purdie read a city statement at a Board of Aldermen meeting acknowledging “considerable public interest” and urging residents to seek information. The mayor encouraged attendance at a work session on March 16 to discuss the project, the statement said.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
