Data centers in Leon County, Texas: 1 project mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Leon County, a rural county of about 17,000 people, faces two large data center proposals. The first is Belltown Power's Kahla Project, a 1,500-megawatt data center on private property in Marquez, KBTX reported in December 2025. "They said it was going to be a $15 billion project," County Judge Byron Ryder said at a January 2026 town hall attended by nearly 200 residents, adding that Belltown hoped to build half in 2026 and half in 2027. He was frank about the county's power: "We can make it difficult for them, and we probably will make it difficult for them, but we really can't make, we can't keep them from coming if they want to come." Ryder said the county would not give the project a tax abatement, and officials said they would form a 391 sub-regional planning commission to bring agencies together. "We'll make a stand until they run bulldozers through the pastures," said resident Daniel McCoslin.

The second is a data center proposed by Crusoe Technologies. On July 13, 2026, after more than 20 residents signed up to speak about the planned data centers, water use and tax abatements, the commissioners court voted to reject Crusoe's application for a tax abatement and designation of a reinvestment zone "as submitted", the court's minutes show. At the same meeting the court voted 4-1 to approve new tax abatement guidelines and criteria drafted by Commissioner Kyle Workman, subject to the county attorney's review. It formally adopted the guidelines, criteria and resolution on July 27 after a public hearing.

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.