Lawmakers approve plan for $10B Amazon project
A $10 billion investment by Amazon Web Services in Madison County was announced last Thursday after state lawmakers last convened in a special session to approve an incentive package.
The incentive package includes $44 million from the state and a $215 million loan from the state to Madison County.
Billed “Project Atlas,” it wasn’t announced until after the session that Amazon was the company that would be building two data centers.
The investment by AWS is the single largest capital investment in Mississippi history and four times the size of the previous largest economic development project.
Madison County will borrow $215.1 million from the state at a 4 percent interest rate that will go toward infrastructure. The company will pay a fee in lieu of taxes which will go toward paying down the note. It is unknown at this time how much ad valorem revenue will be generated until the fee-in-lieu agreement is executed but millions of dollars will be poured into Madison County, the Canton Public School District, and the Madison County School District.
The largest portion of that will be $171.5 million for a brand-new sewer system. Beatties Bluff, the current wastewater facility located on the Big Black River is near capacity.
Another $15 million will be spent on grounds around the sites and $14.8 million on water systems.
The first site will be in the Madison County Mega Site located off Highway 22 and Nissan Parkway.
The second location is known as the Costas property, which is 786 acres located along the southern boundary of Madison County near Tougaloo College on the corner of Highland Colony Parkway and West County Line Road.
Gov. Tate Reeves intimated that $10 billion could be just the beginning of the investment. The estimated completion date is 2027.
In addition to Amazon’s investment, Entergy Mississippi will be investing a couple of billion dollars into building new substations to provide power for the project.
Entergy will also be investing in Hinds County and parts of the Delta, including solar farms.
“I’m tremendously proud of our teams for their years of efforts in helping to recruit the largest economic investment in Mississippi history,” Haley Fisackerly, president and CEO, Entergy Mississippi, said. “The impacts of this sizeable investment will reach across our service territory, creating support for economic development and clean, modern power generation investments. Most importantly, this will allow us to produce reliable power, with the most advanced technology available, while keeping rates affordable and further helping all of our customers.”
This should result in lower rates for all Entergy Mississippi customers down the road, too, officials said.
“Just as Nissan did for the automotive industry, AWS will help cloud technology flourish in our state – making Mississippi a technology industry leader in the Southeast United States,” said Fisackerly. “We’re proud to be a partner in this historic investment in our communities and appreciate the fantastic collaboration with Governor Tate Reeves, the Mississippi Legislature, the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the Mississippi Public Utilities staff, Mississippi Development Authority, Madison County Economic Development Authority and others to bring this transformative project to the state.”