The Data Center That Didn’t Exist

In October 2024, Person County announced that Microsoft had purchased 1,350 acres in Woodsdale Township. A vast expanse of fields, forest, and creeks located near the border of North Carolina and Virginia was advertised as “shovel-ready”—a blank space ready to be filled with whatever Microsoft had in mind.

To county residents, the announcement of the $27 million land sale was a total surprise. They’d heard nothing of Microsoft’s interest in the parcel or what the tech giant might build there. Even county leaders didn’t seem particularly clear on the company’s intentions.

“The company has been actively looking for development opportunities in the North Carolina market and worked with Person County leaders to select this site,” leaders posted on Facebook on October 31, 2024. “Microsoft has not finalized project plans, capital investment, or the number of employees, but will provide updates when there is more information to share.”

Brandy Lynch, the county’s economic development director, confirmed during the September 24, 2024, commissioner meeting that the county had signed nondisclosure agreements with the prospective buyer, which explained the silence. While the community knew a project was coming, the company’s identity was unknown. By the time it was public, the land had been sold, a key road had been closed, and Duke Energy was already in the permitting process for a new gas plant to power it all. 

According to the September 2024 board of commissioners meeting minutes, Commissioner Kyle Puryear noted that only four people knew the company was interested in the property, adding that this was the first time in all his years as a commissioner that a company had been this secretive.

What little we know about what went on behind the scenes comes via a public records request seeking documentation and correspondence about the Microsoft deal between January 2023 and December 2024. In August 2025, county administrators fulfilled the request. County Manager Katherine Cathey withdrew it 36 minutes later, citing a staff failure to review for confidential information. The Assembly had already downloaded the records. 

Under North Carolina public records law, agencies must cite a specific statutory exemption when withholding records; a general claim of confidentiality is insufficient. The county’s failure to name a statute in its retraction email left The Assembly with no legal basis to evaluate the denial.

The county later denied a second request for water service agreements, capacity studies, communications related to the site, and NDAs, this time citing the state’s economic development exemption. Microsoft “has not made a commitment to locate a specific project here,” Clerk to the Board of Commissioners Michele Solomon wrote on December 3. (An attorney with the North Carolina Press Association disagreed with that interpretation because by that point, the county had announced the land deal.) 

It wasn’t until February 24, 2026, after repeated questions for this article about plans for the site known as the Mega Park, that Microsoft and local officials confirmed it would be the future home of a data center. 

At a November 19, 2025, community meeting organized in Roxboro by Clean Water For North Carolina, Appalachian Voices, and the Sierra Club, a half-dozen residents voiced their frustrations with the county. “The road closure really is a detriment to emergency service,” said Tina Clayton, 71. She and her husband live within a few miles of the site. “They could’ve at least left it open,” she said. “It takes EMS 11 minutes to go around now.”  

Robert Brauer, chair of the Environmental Issues Advisory Committee, expressed a mix of cautious optimism and frustration. He isn’t opposed to Big Tech coming to the county, but wants transparency about what it brings. “The agreements were supposed to end with the land purchase,” said Brauer. 

“One of the big challenges is transparency in this whole thing,” said Nick Jimenez, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “The data center companies are all competing against each other for the same attributes. My understanding is that it is standard for a developer to talk with local officials about the approvals they’ll need, and that they’ll want to do it under NDA. I’m not saying I like that, but it is common.”

Microsoft said in a statement that its plans would ultimately benefit the community: “Microsoft is committed to being a good neighbor and active community member anywhere we build, own, or operate facilities. We look forward to sharing more detailed plans with the community as we have them and move through the years-long development process.”

A Decade in the Making

For more than 10 years, Person County officials attempted to sell the parcel to at least three tech companies. 

In 2013, local leaders partnered with the Timmons Group, a Greensboro-based civil engineering firm, and began marketing the land, then called Project Trace. New Jersey-based chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries expressed interest, envisioning a 3.5-million-square-foot semiconductor plant, and asked Duke Energy whether it could provide the power. The site sits between the utility’s Roxboro and Mayo plants, a landscape rich in economic promise and heavy with coal ash pollution. Duke indicated it could meet the demand, but the tech company never moved forward. 

In early 2018, the site received the coveted “megasite” designation from the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (NCEDP), then one of only six in the state. These sites were purpose-built for heavy industry and positioned as turnkey: ready for a major corporate buyer. 

Person County invested heavily to make the land shovel-ready: pre-approved zoning, completed environmental assessments, and permits from the Department of Environmental Quality and the Army Corps of Engineers. Of the approximately 1,350 acres, around 400 were designated as wetlands, leaving 948 usable acres.

When NCEDP was courting Tesla in 2020, Person County pitched the parcel. Duke again offered infrastructure upgrades for the potential Cybertruck and Model Y facility. Austin, Texas, landed that project instead.

That setback didn’t dissuade the county. After finalizing the acquisition of a 2.5-acre “donut hole” parcel in June 2024, the future Mega Park was complete. 

The county appears to have been well on its way to making a deal with Microsoft at that point. 

On May 30, 2024, Lynch, who served as the county’s liaison with Microsoft, started an email thread under the subject line “Project Energy,” copying County Planning Director Chris Bowley, County Manager Katherine Cathey, and County Attorney T.C. Morphis and relaying instructions from unnamed project consultants.

“I am very excited to send you this email,” Lynch wrote. “I have spoken with the Project consultants tonight, and they have asked that I send this NDA to you this evening,” she added. “Your expertise is needed like NEVER before.” 

She noted that she, Cathey, and Morphis were already under NDAs at that point. “All [economic development] projects are confidential, but this one has expressed it more than any I have ever been involved in.” 

Soon, multiple threads about the Microsoft project were buzzing. On June 5, Morphis raised the question of closing a segment of Country Club Road, a public road through the Mega Park, noting that approval from the State Board of Transportation would be required. “I don’t know how long it takes to get on the agenda,” he warned. 

Two days later, Cathey mapped out parallel timelines: For rezoning, Lynch would complete an application by June 17, the planning board would hold a public hearing on July 11, and commissioners would vote on August 5. To close this section of the road, commissioners would vote on June 17 to formally relinquish public rights to it. The State Board of Transportation would consider it on July 10, with a final public hearing and vote on August 5. 

Both processes moved through the agenda that summer under the guise of generic bureaucratic language. The June 17 rezoning abstract named the parcels and laid out a tight timeline from authorization to the planning board hearing to the commissioner’s vote, but didn’t list a client or an intended use. 

Microsoft was also busy behind the scenes, engaging a network of consultants to assess whether Person County could support a data center of its desired scale. Firms included Colliers International, a global commercial real estate broker; Olsson, a civil engineering firm; Brown and Caldwell, an environmental and infrastructure consultant; and Corgan, an architecture firm specializing in data center design. 

Both the company and its consultants peppered county staff with operational questions: water access and sewer capacity, road closures, electrical substation facilities, and local building codes. Their questions, routed through Lynch, made clear the project was well past the exploratory stage and that whatever Microsoft was planning would place significant demands on the rural county’s infrastructure.

On June 25, Microsoft Senior Land Development Program Manager Joyce Herward emailed Lynch a detailed list of questions about road closures, water capacity, and sewer infrastructure. The exchange revealed an immediate problem: virtually every permit associated with the site’s sewer system was out of date. The sewer system, Lynch wrote, had always been intended to be modified “to accommodate the end user, which was unknown at the time.” 

A $3 million rebuild would be required just to handle cooling-water discharge, and even that figure was only a starting point. Lynch noted the estimate covered 40,000 gallons per day, about 8% of what a large-scale data center could require.  

While the City of Roxboro would typically handle maintenance of such infrastructure, Lynch indicated the county was prepared to explore grants and other public funding options to help. When Herward asked whether the lift station, a pump that pushes collected wastewater to a higher elevation, could be redesigned to better serve the site, Lynch confirmed.

In a separate thread, Don Moss of Colliers International passed along a question: The substations required for the project would stand up to 60 feet tall, exceeding the county’s 50-foot limit for industrial zones. Lynch’s initial reply was reassuring: “There is not a height restriction on the property.” 

The fuller answer came the next day from Bowley, who shared the precise ordinance language. Structures built for light or heavy industrial uses, he explained, are not subject to height restrictions, provided the developer submits a letter from the fire marshal confirming local emergency responders can serve the facility. Lynch followed up with a letter from the fire marshal on July 12, confirming that local emergency responders could handle taller structures.

On July 9, Microsoft’s senior land development manager sent questions about costs, parking requirements, and restrictions on construction hours. Lynch pulled answers together within two days. The county would help secure grants and incentives to cover sewer costs. Parking requirements could be waived. And the request to DOT for the road closure “is already in process,” she wrote.

On August 5, the rezoning sailed through the commissioners’ votes. A few weeks later, on September 16, commissioners held another closed session, this time under attorney-client privilege, during which they were briefed on the deal’s terms after Microsoft had signed the purchase agreement, according to statements by officials in county records.

On September 24, commissioners voted 4-1 to close Country Club Road. Three days after the vote, in a closed session, County Attorney Morphis told the board what residents had not been told: the road closure was Microsoft’s condition of sale. Lynch also reported that Microsoft had asked for an estimate to build a new EMS facility for the county, framed as a desire to “give back to the community.” 

It is unclear whether Microsoft was aware that EMS response times had been among residents’ stated concerns about the road closure when it made the offer. Microsoft did not respond to questions about the road closure and resident concerns around EMS impacts.

“We are a small county,” said Susan Jacques, a Person County resident who moved from Durham in 1990. “Microsoft and Duke Energy are huge, with powerful lawyers and lobbyists. It’s David and Goliath, but sometimes it seems like David is wooed by the power of the companies and is less focused on the needs of the people.”

The road closed on October 8. Microsoft’s purchase was finalized and announced on October 31.

In The Dark

In the 18 months since the announcement, residents have been trying to understand exactly what Microsoft has planned for the site and the gap between the county’s current infrastructure and Microsoft’s requirements. They say they’ve been repeatedly refused or ignored.

Last August, a group of residents, supported by environmental advocates and Person County Environmental Issues Advisory Committee Chair Brauer, drafted a list of 21 questions for the company, which they asked commissioners to forward, on concerns such as daily water consumption, power sources, emergency access, and construction timelines.

When asked whether they had received or intended to reply to the letter, Microsoft pointed to a recently published blog post about their Community-First Infrastructure Initiative in North Carolina, a pledge not to pass energy costs on to local ratepayers, an approach they’ve also taken with projects in Wyoming and Wisconsin. 

A Microsoft spokesperson also said: “While [Microsoft is] at the earliest stage of the development process, in any future datacenter project, the community can expect that we will: pay our way to ensure our development doesn’t increase residents’ electricity prices, minimize our water use and replenish more water than we use, create jobs for community residents, add to the tax base, and strengthen the community by investing in local IT training and nonprofits.” 

The sales-tax exemptions that helped attract Microsoft, including breaks on qualifying data-center equipment and electricity for projects meeting the $75 million threshold, are now facing scrutiny after Gov. Josh Stein called on lawmakers in April to reconsider or even eliminate them.

The February public statement confirming that Person County would be the new home of a data center omitted details on size, water, and energy requirements. County Manager Cathey told The Assembly via email that Microsoft plans to begin the permitting process later this year. 

The City of Roxboro, which controls the water and sewer infrastructure that could supply the Mega Park, hasn’t signed NDAs with Microsoft, said City Manager Brooks Lockhart. The industrial site could receive up to 8 million gallons per day. In response to questions from The Assembly, Microsoft updated its May 1 blog post to clarify that its operation “is expected to reduce water use by relying on air‑cooled chillers that use a closed, recirculating water loop rather than traditional water‑intensive cooling methods.” 

In 2024, Duke, whose Hyco and Mayo plants flank the Mega Park, projected a surge in regional electricity demand. It’s adding gas-fired capacity at the new Person County Energy Complex and converting two of the four aging coal units at its Roxboro Steam Plant to combined-cycle gas units, with a generating capacity of 2,720 megawatts . 

Person County’s roughly 14,000 households account for about 57 megawatts of electricity use per year, according to utility‑level data. These new units would generate 48 times that. The Person County Energy Complex will feed into Duke Energy’s broader Carolinas grid, not just local Person County loads. Duke’s data show that data centers account for roughly 37 of the 46 gigawatts of projected economic development demand across the Carolinas.

Testifying before the N.C. Utilities Commission in May 2025, Person County Economic Development Chair Scott McKinney said a data center was the primary reason for the extra capacity, nine months before either Microsoft or the county confirmed that’s what is planned for the Mega Park. “Access to significant quantities of reliable electric power was part of what made the site attractive,” he said.

Jimenez at the SELC said utility infrastructure built for data centers typically outlasts the customers it was designed to serve, leaving ratepayers to cover decades of costs if a company downsizes or leaves: “What if we’re halfway built on five gas plants and then the AI bubble goes away?”

Duke broke ground on February 16.

Duke’s contracts with large customers, such as data centers, are private deals, not public filings. Bill Norton, Duke’s spokesperson, said these customers pay costs “equal to if not greater than the cost of building new generation assets.” Duke told state regulators that economic development doesn’t result in higher bills, though in their presentation it noted that this was “directional and illustrative” and not a full picture of what customers would actually pay. It’s also based on broad planning scenarios, not individual projects like Person County. 

In March, state regulators ordered Duke to hand over its contracts with its largest customers. Duke complied, but filed them under seal. The utilities commission didn’t respond to questions about the contracts. 

“Maybe those protections are there,” said Jimenez. “We just can’t see them.” 

Closest to It

The gas fueling those plants will be supplied by Enbridge, a Canadian energy company with a history of major pipeline spills that acquired Dominion’s North Carolina gas operations in February 2025 for $4 billion. Enbridge now oversees two major Person County projects: the Moriah Energy Center, a liquefied natural gas storage facility that drew intense local opposition, and a 45-mile pipeline designed to carry fuel down from Appalachia.

The median household income for the county is well under the state average, at $65,000, and a quarter of the residents are Black. At Woodland Elementary School in Semora, which sits less than a mile from the Roxboro plant, nearly all of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. 

The plant will emit nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and fine particulate matter, all of which are strongly linked to asthma and the incurable lung disease Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and put the students of Woodland at increased risk of respiratory concerns. While the transition from coal to gas reduces some emissions, it introduces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. 

While Duke’s analyses and filings assert that its new gas‑fueled plant will emit less carbon dioxide and fewer traditional air pollutants than the existing coal units, experts and advocacy groups argue that the energy system—the MEC, the pipeline, and the Duke facilities—will still release large volumes of methane and other greenhouse gases. 

“You often hear natural gas described as a ‘cleaner alternative’ to coal, and depending on how you’re looking at the question, that might be true,” said Munashe Magarira, a senior attorney with the SELC. “But if you dig a little deeper, it will still have a significant impact on the climate. And we’re seeing it—with Helene and other hurricanes across North Carolina and the South—increasing impacts from climate change.”

Researchers with the nonprofit collaborative Environmental Data and Governance Initiative analyzed 550 data centers subject to Clean Air Act permits, finding they are disproportionately located within a mile of communities of color that already face air pollution. Because Microsoft has not filed permits with state or local authorities, it’s unclear whether the Person County facility will be subject to Environmental Protection Agency oversight of its emissions. 

On March 18, Microsoft announced it would stop using nondisclosure agreements with local governments and would end existing ones on a case-by-case basis. 

Lynch, the Person County economic development director, was also fired in March; the dismissal letter, obtained by the Triangle Business Journal, cited “unsatisfactory work performance.” In a LinkedIn post, Lynch wrote, “Situations like this have a way of testing your character and reinforcing what you stand for.”

Neither Microsoft, Person County officials, nor Lynch responded to questions about the status of local NDAs. 

“Many have labeled Person County as a sacrifice zone, a county where big players like Duke and Microsoft can do whatever they want with little resistance,” said Jacques. “It feels like that is what is happening. 

“But the impacts won’t just be felt in Person,” she continued, noting that surface waters originating in Person feed into Durham and Wake counties, too. “I want people to understand that just because it isn’t happening in their backyard doesn’t mean it won’t impact them down the line.”

This story was produced with support from the Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative at Wake Forest University.