{"id":176935,"date":"2026-03-03T22:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176935\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T22:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T22:34:08","slug":"proposed-data-center-in-indiantown-would-impact-wetlands-and-protected-species-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176935\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed data center in Indiantown would impact wetlands and protected species, records show"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposed AI data center in Indiantown<\/a> will affect multiple protected species and would get built on 200 acres of wetlands, according to records WPTV received from a public records request.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Data centers are Florida’s newest threat to wildlife, experts warn<\/p>\n

The project, given the codename “Silver Fox” after the road where the project is located to keep the operator anonymous, would create a 2-million-square-foot data center campus with an AI lab, four data center buildings up to 50 feet (three stories) tall, an FPL substation and two different lakes. <\/p>\n

Records related to the project show 40% of the site\u2019s size is made up of wetlands, and officials found multiple protected species on the property.<\/p>\n

Matthew Schwartz, with the South Florida Wildlands Association, said the location is the \u201cwrong place\u201d for a data center after reviewing the records not publicly posted by the Village of Indiantown. He said the location is rich with wildlife near three different wildlife management areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese areas are rich in wildlife because they’re in a very rural area,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cWhenever you bring in this level of human disturbance, you’re impacting wildlife. You’re impacting them in all kinds of ways. The noise alone from a project like this: You’ve got backup diesel generators going, you’ve got this machinery humming all the time\u2026 and we don’t exactly know how that’s gonna impact the wildlife, but there are impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the increase in proposed AI data centers is becoming a new challenge in protecting Florida\u2019s wildlife from development, which is usually residential or commercial rather than industrial. However, these projects are usually proposed in more rural areas with smaller surrounding populations and more wildlife.<\/p>\n

CAMPUS MAP:<\/p>\n

According to the application, officials at the South Florida Water Management District saw protected species including wood storks, sandhill cranes and gopher tortoise activity. The officials also said they found a bald eagle’s nest on the 606-acre property, where they said about 230 acres are wetlands.<\/p>\n

Silver Fox 606 is the applicant listed in village records for the proposed 2-million-square-foot facility, which would be located at 13820 Silver Fox Road. The project is the third data processing center that WPTV has discovered is being proposed in our area. <\/p>\n

Indiantown<\/p>\n

What we know about Indiantown’s mystery data center <\/p>\n

Like proposed projects in Palm Beach<\/a> and St. Lucie<\/a> counties, the the operator of the facility isn\u2019t clear. Silver Fox 606 was founded in April 2025 and only lists Nelson Ferreira as the manager, according to state business records.<\/p>\n

Those records show Ferreira, who didn\u2019t respond to our calls last week or today, owns a Juno Beach-based construction business. According to the Martin County Recorder\u2019s Office, the company received a mortgage related to the property with a principal amount secured worth $35 million, of which $12 million was given up front in June 2025.<\/p>\n

These new records WPTV received related to the project show about 300 people would work at the facility, and 248 of those 300 people would work at four data center buildings. It said it made these estimates based on \u201cGoogle Data Centers Staffing Levels\u201d citing a Google Data Center in The Dalles, Oregon. <\/p>\n

WPTV reached out to Google to learn if it had any involvement in the project. We didn\u2019t hear back after reaching out Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed AI data center in Indiantown will affect multiple protected species and would get built on 200…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167751,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-176935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}