{"id":391531,"date":"2026-07-30T03:52:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391531\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T03:52:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T03:52:02","slug":"leda-defends-data-center-deal-with-corva-in-northeast-lubbock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/391531\/","title":{"rendered":"LEDA defends data center deal with Corva in northeast Lubbock"},"content":{"rendered":"

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance is defending its decision to approve a new data center inside city limits, saying the project is far smaller than the large-scale facilities residents have raised concerns<\/a> about.<\/p>\n

At its June board meeting, LEDA approved an agreement with the company Corva<\/a> to build an inference data center near Municipal Drive and Guava, next to LP&L\u2019s Northeast Substation outside the Loop. The project is known as \u201cProject Infrared.\u201d<\/p>\n

LEDA President John Osborne said Corva plans to start by using 6 megawatts of power, with a maximum of 27 megawatts per day \u2014 comparable, he said, to large manufacturers such as X-Fab or Leprino. The city\u2019s proposed definition of a large-scale data center sets the threshold at a minimum of 100 megawatts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not a major power user like the hyperscale data centers are,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

The 50,000-square-foot center would not generate power on-site. Corva said the facility would use 1,500 gallons of water per day through a closed-loop cooling system. The city\u2019s proposed definition of a hyperscale center requires a minimum of 100,000 gallons of water per day.<\/p>\n

Osborne said LEDA has declined other projects over resource concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve actually turned down $25 billion worth of projects that were looking to potentially come to Lubbock because they were using too much water,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cThe bulk of those were data center related, but not all data centers. Some of those were actually manufacturers as well. And so, it\u2019s not that every company is received with open arms coming to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osborne said the project was not publicly announced before the agreement was reached because Corva still needs to secure an interconnect with LP&L to access the ERCOT grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if they don\u2019t get that, then the project goes away because there\u2019s no need for them to actually be here if they can\u2019t get the power that they need,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

Osborne said the project is not located on land near the North Interstate that was rezoned at a recent city council meeting<\/a>. He said the nearest homes are about a mile away, off MLK Blvd.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf the 100 acres that are there, 80 of it is actually in a floodplain and not developable,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n

The land is already designated as light industrial, Osborne said, meaning the project did not require review by the Planning and Zoning Commission. Because no city incentives were offered, the project also did not require city council approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no incentives that were being offered to this company,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cThey paid for the land and they were paying for all the infrastructure upgrades that need to be taken place at that site and to be able to connect in and to receive the power they need. So as a result, not having any incentives, there\u2019s not something for the council to actually have to approve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osborne said the project is expected to generate $23 million for the city, $14 million for the county, and $3 million for the hospital district in tax revenues over the next decade.<\/p>\n

He said council members have been involved in discussions about the project and have asked questions about power, water, and the impact on nearby residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this is a data center, it\u2019s not a high water user, it\u2019s not a high power user, they didn\u2019t receive incentives,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cThey\u2019re willing to be inside the city of Lubbock, so they have to follow all the regulations the city of Lubbock has. And they are bringing a tremendously large investment to this community that will then go on the tax rolls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – The Lubbock Economic Development Alliance is defending its decision to approve a new data…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2146,27359,7990,4145,992,137919,7985,356,8470,7974,110,27361,3413,3458,137921,137924,137927,137926,73564,54202,137925,40715,57030,168,170,169,137923,137920,27652,10470,9223,495,16303,2445,137922,410],"class_list":["post-391531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-alliance","tag-approval","tag-brittany-crittenden","tag-center","tag-city","tag-corva","tag-council","tag-data","tag-deal","tag-defends","tag-development","tag-economic","tag-ercot","tag-grid","tag-guava","tag-hyperscale","tag-incentive","tag-inference","tag-infrared","tag-john-osborne","tag-large-scale","tag-leda","tag-lpl","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-megawatt","tag-municipal-drive","tag-northeast","tag-power","tag-project","tag-resources","tag-substation","tag-tax","tag-usage","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}