$5.18B data center proposed in Columbus sparks questions. Here’s what to know
A proposed hyperscale data center called Project Ruby would be built on roughly 900 acres in northeast Muscogee County, and it would need more electricity than all of Columbus currently uses.
Residents have raised concerns at recent public meetings about the amount of water and power needed to run a data center and its environmental impact. Economic development officials have touted the benefits of the project. Mayoral candidates have had mixed reactions.
Here are key takeaways from the Ledger-Enquirer’s reporting about Project Ruby:
• The estimated cost of the project is $5.18 billion, spanning land acquisition, facility construction and equipment installation from 2027 to 2030. The data center is expected to create 195 jobs with salaries between $80,000 and $120,000 per year and generate $68.7 million in annual property tax revenue by 2030 before depreciation, according to the Feb. 12 Choose Columbus news release. The Development Authority of Columbus is not offering tax incentives.
• The selected site for the data center is on undeveloped wooded land bordering Harris and Talbot counties. To the north is open space in Harris County. To the east are homes on the outskirts of Midland off McKee Road. U.S. 80/Macon Road is just south of the proposed development site. Also to the east is Talbot County, where a recently acquired 9,000-acre Wildlife Management Area called Upatoi Ravines is run by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
• The data center developer, Habitat Real Estate Partners, requested up to 600 megawatts of power — more than the 550 MW that all Columbus residential and commercial users consume, according to Georgia Power. The energy would come in three phases, starting with 200 MW in 2029 and reaching 600 MW by 2034.
• The data center developer will pay $30 million upfront for the center’s water and sewage infrastructure, said Choose Columbus president and CEO Missy Kendrick. The facility is projected to consume 330,000 gallons of water daily. Columbus currently uses 35-40 million gallons of water daily, she said. The city can process up to 90 million gallons of water per day, Kendrick said.
• Flint Energies, whose current capacity is around 450 MW (500 MW at peak), would power the project on a contract separate from its existing customers. The co-op’s power mix is 78% natural gas.
• Troy Keller, chairman of the Environmental Science Department at Columbus State University and a member of Clean Energy Columbus, requested during the Feb. 24 Columbus Council meeting a moratorium for 90 or 180 days on data center development in the city, citing concerns about noise, water, energy strain and air pollution.
• Dozens of cities and counties across Georgia have created moratoriums on data centers. Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman sponsored a bill last month that would put a statewide moratorium on data centers for a year. That bill (HB 1012) is pending in the House as of Feb. 26.
• The data center buyer has not been named, but Kendrick said it would be one of Big 5 hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Meta or Apple.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. All of the Ledger-Enquirer articles linked in this piece were reported, written and edited by journalists.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 11:11 AM.
