August 21, 2025 – We have all heard about “the cloud” and kind of understand that most of our information is stored there as well as other content we receive comes from that same cloud. What remains a mystery to most of us, is the actually location of the cloud. If you are like me, you probably think “the cloud” resides somewhere in the stratosphere like other clouds but the cloud we depend on for our content and data actually resides in different data centers all around the world.
Sulphur Springs Agrees to Thermo Deal
If the City of Sulphur Springs can close a huge business deal, the old Thermo Mine property could be the next location of one of those huge data centers. And City Manager Marc Maxwell means HUGE. MSB Global has agreed in principle to a multi-billion dollar investment of buildings on approximately 1,600 acres formerly known as the Thermo Mine. Maxwell believes that the initial first-phase investment by MSB would top $15 billion (with a “B”). During this first phase, MSB plans to provide building space for 800 Megawatts with an ultimate goal in future phases to provide space for up to 3 Gigawatts or 3,000 megawatts. This enormous investment is just for building space alone and represents only about one-third of the total investment to get a data center up and running, the other two-thirds being the computers and equipment. These investment numbers are staggering and so are the tax revenue possibilities for all taxing entities.
Although MSB Global has committed to take the land from the city, the deal is far from done. MSB is just a developer specializing in data center building construction. MSB Global would need to secure a huge customer (or multiple customers) to lease the buildings. These customers would then install the servers for data storage. Based on MSB Global’s website we are led to believe these customers would include Hulu, Nvidia or similar large data users called hyperscalers. These hyperscalers are already leasing and building other projects all over the country and the world. The demand for these facilities is not slowing down, making the competition extremely tough.
Power Requirements
Data centers are rated in megawatts and gigawatts to reflect the amount of electricity they use to operate. The Thermo project is expected to top out at 3 Gigawatts (3,000 megawatts). That is a tremendous amount of electricity for our area and as a percentage of the Texas ERCOT grid. When the proposed Thermo project is fully built out, the electricity requirement would be approximately 4% of the entire state of Texas’ average daily usage. To combat this, MSB Global proposes that they will build their own natural gas-fired electricity generation plant on the Thermo Mine property. Opponents of natural gas burning electrical plants are opposed to the air pollution generated which includes some soot and toxic emissions. Proponents of natural gas plants emphasize that it is the cleaner fossil fuel option for generating electricity.
Tax Implications and Opportunities
Obviously with an investment of buildings, computers, and a power plant, the taxing entities involved could see a huge increase in revenue even after tax rebates or abatements. Maxwell reports that the city could see an increase in revenue to the city of $35 million per year with a portion being dedicated to a tax increment reinvestment zone fund (TIRZ). This TIRZ would help fund the infrasctructure needed to get the projects up to speed on the Thermo property. Hopkins County and the Hospital District would also see large increases in reveue as well as dedicate a portion of tax revenues for TIRZ. With a project size of the data center that is being proposed, it is important to know that although the tax revenue could be six times the normal intake, the expenses to make it all work will go up as well. The City of Sulphur Springs has already planned for a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone on parts of the Thermo Mine property, much like how downtown Sulphur Springs improvements were funded. Maxwell indicated to KSST News that with the huge increase in tax revenue, the city would like to refund some if not all of residential taxes to homeowners. This windfall idea would need special state legislation approval. What is unknown at this time is what city expeneses could be incurred with such a large project inside the city limits. Extra police and certainly additional firefighting coverage would be needed. The expansion of utility service and new roads may facilitate new expenses for the city. Obviously the city of Sulphur Springs believes these new expenses would be far lower than the new tax income.
Jobs & Housing
Marc Maxwell reports that the total jobs involved in the project during construction and ongoing management could top 1,500 workers with an average wage above the current Sulphur Springs wage average. It is unclear at this time how many long term jobs would be needed which would also give an idea if and when Sulphur Springs and Hopkins County could see a population increase. The Thermo Mine property future plan also includes a residential expansion with multi-use projects planned by developer Jeffory Blackard, a Hopkins County resident who built a previous similar project in McKinney. Maxwell confirmed that Blackard will be purchasing building lots directly from the City of Sulphur Springs and the parks, green spaces, trails, etc will be owned by the city. The residential portion of the Thermo Mine property is actually zoned as multi-use properties and would allow the developer to have a mix of different types of residential properties as well as commercial buinesses. There are actually two residential areas on the master plan for the Thermo property, each of about 500 acres in size. The first area master plan known as Bright Star is in Ordinance 2868 and can be seen on City of Sulphur Springs website.
Conclusion
The new data center project can only be categorized as hopeful at the moment as there are still lots of moving parts yet to be determined. Maxwell hopes that both the data center and the residential project should gain momentum by the end of the year as both entities hope to have their funding in place by end of year. If the enormous data center project can get funded and move forward it could be one of the largest data center projects in the state if not the country. MSG Global would benefit greatly with lots of free land but the expense of building a power plant could be huge. The overall numbers are staggering, not only for the investment, but for the tax revenue, jobs, and possible strain on resources.
