During comments Tuesday about the process leading through the recent zoning approval for a data center on Burkhalter Road, City Manager Charles Penny asserted that Statesboro officials will not consider the further step of approving a special use permit until after they know who the end-user will be.
A company named 4AM Development LLC, which owns the 26.94-acre site, successfully sought the zoning change from "R-4" high-density residential to "O" for office. But along the way, 4AM Development's owners, Bobby Bagwell of Augusta and Charles C. Way of Savannah, mainly residential developers until now, acknowledged that they personally have neither the cash nor the expertise to build the data center. According to a fiscal impact study they sought, the project could involve a $1.2 billion capital investment over 10 years.
As recently as Aug. 18 when the council voted 3-2, including the mayor's tiebreaker, to approve the rezoning, Way said the developers were "zoning it speculatively, but there is zero chance that they're going to build this speculatively." At an earlier hearing, he said the developers had been talking with a couple of potential operating companies and intended to select one after the zoning was approved.
That selection will have to happen, and be known to the mayor and council, before a decision is made about the special use permit, Penny said in the midst of his remarks during Tuesday's 9 a.m. regular council meeting.
"Now that the land use has been established, staff will have to do extensive analysis of the end-user, once the application is received," Penny said.
No timeline yet
At this point, the special use application has not been received, he added. In response to a later follow-up question, on which Planning and Development Director Justin Williams was copied, Penny said they do not know when a completed application may be submitted.
Speaking to the mayor and council, as well as the public, on Tuesday, Penny noted that the Planning Board would receive the application and make a recommendation to City Council, which will make the final decision on the special-use permit.
"And Mayor and Council, we've seen some emails and some questions over will you just approve a special-use permit without knowing who the end-user would be. …," Penny said. "My answer will be, because your responsibility is to know who that end-user will be for the protection of our citizens, if you don't know who the end-user is and you approve the special-use permit, basically you're giving the owner a blank check. I don't believe that this council will sign a blank check."
Realizing that Penny had referred to the council and advisory board knowing who the end-user will be but had not mentioned the general public, the Statesboro Herald asked him, in an email, at what point the public will know.
"When and if we get an application, it is public information; however, we will not be making a public announcement," he replied. "Staff has to review the application and analyze the information to prepare a recommendation. We have to give public notice when we advertise the meeting for the planning board. Those meetings are all public."
Review of topic
No action or public hearing about data centers was scheduled or occurred during Tuesday's meeting, but Penny's presentation regarding them had been placed on the agenda right after the invocation and pledge. With a slideshow that included text but no illustrations, he reviewed the city government's interest in and research on data centers, going back at least a full year.
In the process, he also acknowledged that, beginning last fall or winter, the 4AM Development LLC owners discussed a data center for the Burkhalter road site with city staff as a lower-traffic, higher-net tax revenue alternative to building out a high-density apartment complex.
"Data centers have taken center stage in our country, county and city," Penny stated in his first slide. "Citizens have a right to be concerned with anything that they feel may impact their community, their homes, their health and their children's health. We recognize and acknowledge the concerns."
Then he said that his presentation would not constitute a recommendation to the mayor and council but was intended to review facts about what the city staff had been doing on the topic.
Back in September 2025, representatives of the Statesboro city and Bulloch County governments were invited to meet with Development Authority of Bulloch County, or DABC, staff about data centers.
"The meeting was not because we were recruiting a data center," Penny said. "Neither the city nor the Development Authority has been recruiting centers, but it was a growing topic of consideration, and the Development Authority offered to assist in gaining knowledge."
October 2025 work session
After that meeting with the DABC staff, Williams, director of the city's Planning and Development Department, presented a report on data centers during an Oct. 21 council work session. It was then that council members directed the staff to organize a tour to visit data centers, Penny said.
His remarks Tuesday included a brief detour into the topic of the previously proposed use of the Burkhalter Road site. About three years ago, Statesboro began to see an explosion of interest in housing developments coinciding with Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America's construction in the region and Bulloch County's new subdivision ordinance, he noted. The city government eventually approved developers' applications for more than 6,000 new housing units, expected to be built over 10 years, and more than 50% have now "gone vertical" to construction, he said.
It was in that context that the owners of the 26-plus acres on Burkhalter Road approached city staff "about considering an alternative use for the property due to a concern of a surplus of housing units," Penny stated with a slide.
He noted that Williams had begun drafting a data centers ordinance in the fall of 2025.
Three council members, the mayor and some staff members then took the exploratory field trip in January to data centers at Social Circle and Alpharetta near the Atlanta area. Not mentioned in Tuesday's presentation, the trip also included a meeting with Georgia Power staff at the company's Georgia Experience Center.
'Hyperscale' prohibited
The final version of the ordinance, enacted by a 3-1 vote of the council June 2, prohibits "hyperscale" data centers in the city limits, limiting any data center to maximum 50-acre site. It also established requirements for the special-use permitting.
Penny's presentation also reviewed information from the fiscal impact analysis, which the DABC obtained from Economic Impact Group LLC at the request of the developers. The Economic Impact research firm reportedly ran numbers supplied by the would-be developers through the trademarked LOCI model and software.
What the study suggested about the data center as a revenue source for the city, county and school system was reported in an Aug. 11–12 Statesboro Herald story.
Observations Penny made Tuesday about those results and the timing of the study will be included in a follow-up to or expansion of the current story.