QTS Augusta (Gordon Highway, formerly T5 Project Eisenhower) data center, Augusta, Georgia

QTS Data Centers is building a $2 billion, six-building data center campus at 2883 Gordon Highway in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia, on the site once planned by T5 as Project Eisenhower, between the Hayne's Station and Captain's Corner neighborhoods near Fort Gordon. The Augusta Commission adopted new data center rules by a 6-5 vote on September 15, 2026. Those rules do not apply to the QTS campus, which received its zoning approvals before the city's moratorium took effect.

The land was first rezoned for a data center in 2022 under T5, and QTS, which worked through Eagle South LLC, received updated approvals in 2024 and 2025 after enlarging the project. The revised plan filed with the state calls for six two-story buildings totaling about 2.15 million square feet. The campus covers more than 170 acres, with the first building planned for as soon as 2027. QTS told residents that tree clearing would start in spring 2026 and grading that summer, with construction of the first building expected in 2027 and about 160 to 220 permanent jobs. QTS said the campus would use closed-loop cooling and put its maximum daily water use at about 18,000 gallons, rejecting a figure of 18 million gallons a day that had circulated.

Many Hayne's Station residents were surprised when groundwork began, and then learned the data center had been approved before their homes were built. "None of us would have purchased our houses here if we would have known a data center was going into our backyards," Hayne's Station resident Zakiya Mabery told commissioners in June. At a packed February town hall, residents raised traffic, noise, wetlands, generator fumes, power and water bills and property values. "I would like for the elected officials to talk to us and explain to us how this happened," said Lacey Gaines. Mayor Garnett Johnson said it was a misconception that the commission had approved the deal, pointing to the economic development authority, and authority president Cal Wray said a private landowner had zoned the site and sold it to QTS.

In February city staff said grading permits were still under review, no building permits had been issued, and wetland approvals from the Army Corps of Engineers were still needed. Residents pushed for a 12-month moratorium; on June 2 the commission instead passed a 49-day pause on new data centers that did not cover QTS. The final draft released a week before the vote bars data centers from residential and agricultural areas, requires a public hearing and commission approval in most other zones, sets noise limits of 65 decibels by day and 60 at night, and requires 500-foot buffers from homes and farmland and closed-loop cooling. The Augusta Press reported that some said the nearly three-month moratorium was not long enough.

QTS is also developing campuses near Fayetteville and in Blakely, Georgia. QTS says it is holding a series of community meetings and events for Augusta residents, including a community panel session at Belair Elementary on June 24. The permits still outstanding in February, for grading, buildings and wetlands, are handled by Augusta's planning and permitting staff and the Army Corps of Engineers.