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Data centers in Rapides Parish, Louisiana: 1 project mapped
Rapides Parish's data center is Delta Forge 1, a $3.6 billion AI campus that Applied Digital Corp. is building on about 300 acres near I-49 just south of the town of Boyce. Gov. Jeff Landry announced it at the England Airpark community center on May 26, 2026, though site work had begun in January. The first phase is two buildings with about 300MW of critical IT load, a figure that excludes cooling and lighting, and Applied Digital describes it as a long-term campus under a 15-year initial lease with three five-year renewals. The company, which is based in Dallas, has not named the tenant. Its application to the England Economic and Industrial Development District covers 672.52 acres, and construction plans KALB obtained through records requests show schematics for two or three more "future" buildings; the company told the station only two are planned for now. Operations are expected to start in mid-2027, with 200 permanent jobs at or above 150% of the state's average wage and more than 1,000 construction jobs at the peak.
Instead of property taxes, Applied Digital will make payments in lieu of taxes under a term sheet KALB obtained: $27.4 million in the first year, falling in steps to $19.4 million a year by years 22 to 25, plus $18 million a year for three years to regional taxing bodies and community development. The company also escapes state sales tax on data center equipment under Act 730 of 2024. Cleco will supply the power over a 230,000-volt transmission line, and says the campus will be its largest customer ever. Cleco chief commercial officer Shane Hilton said the company does not expect any rate increase from the project and that the data center will pay for the substations and transmission it needs, subject to a prudency review at the Public Service Commission. The Louisiana Illuminator noted that neither Cleco nor state officials have said anything about building a new power plant.
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The environmental record is only partly public. Filings with the state Department of Environmental Quality, LDEQ, show each of the two buildings will hold 96 diesel-fired emergency generators, with 32 diesel storage tanks, under a synthetic minor source air permit, and stormwater from construction may be discharged into Bertrand Bayou. On May 27 the department cited the site for failing to control particulate emissions after residents complained about dust. Applied Digital says the closed-loop cooling needs about 866,000 gallons per building to fill, and the Rapides Island Water Association has committed 1,200 to 4,800 gallons a day after that; the company has not given noise figures. Many power and water documents were withheld from KALB as trade secrets. Elsewhere in Louisiana, Meta is building its Hyperion campus in Richland Parish, Hut 8 a $10 billion campus in West Feliciana Parish, and Amazon campuses are planned in Caddo and Bossier parishes.
The anger in Boyce, a town of about 1,000, has been mostly about secrecy. Records obtained by the Gulf States Newsroom and Type Investigations show that at least five state senators, the parish assessor and every member of the development district's board signed non-disclosure agreements under the code names "Project Lightning" and "Project Pixel"; the board approved the deal on April 23 with little discussion. At a June 23 town hall in a Boyce gym, residents jeered when officials said a third-party environmental study would not be released. "Our politicians were elected to represent us, not to represent industry," resident Robert Maddox told the board. The district's executive director, Ralph Hennessy, called the critics "a vocal minority" and told NPR, "NDAs are not illegal, OK?" Applied Digital chief executive Wes Cummins said he would "love to be able to get away from the NDA part because it just feels sneaky to people."
Data center projects on record in Rapides Parish
Grouped by the town each site sits in. The report above may name projects that have no record here yet.
Boyce1
| Project | Company | Status | Power | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applied Digital Delta Forge 1 (Boyce, Louisiana)Boyce | Applied Digital | Under construction | 300 MW |
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Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.