Project Azalea data center, Thomson, Georgia

Project Azalea is a plan for six data center buildings on 200 acres at 2660-2358 Randall Hunt Road in Thomson, in McDuffie County, west of Augusta. The developer is Williams Brothers Development, founded by Cameron Grogan, and McDuffie County commissioners approved the rezoning 4 to 1 on March 17, 2026.

The project first came to light through a Development of Regional Impact application to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. That January 2026 filing was linked to Project Turbo LLC, which had proposed and then withdrawn a 145-acre data center at Gainesville in Hall County, and projected completion by 2029.

The regional commission's review warned that "sufficient energy supply is not available to serve this project" and said studies were under way with Georgia Power, Georgia Transmission Corporation and the EMC to find out what upgrades were needed. The same report noted that no traffic study had been done and listed 18 outside parties that could be affected, among them Fort Gordon, Augusta-Richmond County, Jefferson County and Columbia County.

In answers published by the McDuffie Progress on February 11, 2026, the project team said the campus would cost more than $1 billion, likely scale to 300 to 500 megawatts of power, use closed loop cooling and less than 1 percent of the municipal water capacity, and pointed out that the county's schools receive roughly 40 to 45 percent of all property tax revenue.

The project's own website puts water use at 30,000 gallons a day, about what 120 homes use, drawn from the municipal system rather than wells. Carrie Davis, who owns land in both McDuffie and Columbia counties, told WRDW in January: "How do you do research if it's not out there?" Davis also asked what becomes of the buildings once the demand passes, since "there's no kind of bond that keeps them accountable."

The planning commission voted 5 to 1 on March 3, 2026 to recommend approval, after Grogan told the room "We don't have any NDAs" and "We want to answer every question." Gary Norris said the rural roads could not take the heavy equipment, Barbara Wilcher worried about the effect on future generations, and Davis again said residents had not been told.

The county collected 74 written questions before a listening session on March 10, where commissioners put them to the developers. On decommissioning the developer promised that "whether we start, we leave, or it ceases to be a data center, we will remove anything that makes it a data center," taking out computing equipment and generators and leaving the shell buildings.

Preston Lingle left unconvinced: "I think they told people what they wanted to hear and I think there are some elements of truth in it." At the March 17 hearing, Gloria Thompson said: "I'm absolutely in favor of this data center and what it will bring to McDuffie County, and not only just in taxes, but in job opportunities."

Kim Silva listed the fears as "The noise pollution, all the health issues that they cause, the seepage from the loop system." The McDuffie County Board of Commissioners approved the rezoning 4 to 1 that night. "When all the questions are answered, and we've agreed to every condition, there's nothing to negotiate, it feels like it was time to take a vote," Grogan said.

The Augusta Chronicle gave the campus 1.5 million square feet, 125 full-time jobs and about $25 million a year in local taxes, $4.6 million of it county property tax and $9 million school tax, with power from an adjacent Jefferson Electric Cooperative substation. Grogan expected work to begin in about a year and to be finished within three to four years.