By September 18, Halifax County is expected to close on the sale of land that will bring an AI data center to the 301 Industrial Site in Enfield, board of commissioners Chairman Vernon J. Bryant said at the end of a public information meeting Tuesday.
The packed commissioners’ meeting room on King Street was the first public presentation of the plans Quiet Data Centers Halifax has for the industrial site where Binderholz operates a large-scale sawmill.
How the deal became public
Until an August 17 notice of a special meeting, the name and details of the project had not been made public, although the county had been in negotiations with the company up until December 17, when it entered into an economic development agreement with QDCH.
County Attorney Glynn Rollins explained that under state general statutes, when property such as the 301 Industrial Site is held for economic development purposes, it may be sold by the county through private negotiations without the usual need for upset bidding.
On November 3, 2025, the board approved the sale of the 251 acres for $1.7 million, although the name of the company remained undisclosed at the time.
Since that time, Rollins said the board “has conducted several closed sessions to discuss this economic development project” and said those closed sessions are authorized under state statutes to discuss matters relating to the location or expansion of industries and businesses in areas served by the public body. “Because the company involved in this economic development project has not announced its final decision to locate in Halifax County, it does not matter whether the closed sessions took place before or after the execution of the economic development agreement and the land purchase agreement,” he said. “With regard to North Carolina Public Records Law, all documents relating to the proposed location of this business in Halifax County may be withheld from public disclosure so long as the disclosure might frustrate the purpose for which those public records were created.”
In the QDCH case, Rollins said, “Because the terms and conditions of the land purchase agreement allow the purchaser to conduct various investigations, inspections, and other due diligence before announcing a final decision to close on the purchase and to locate its operations in the county, it has been vitally necessary for the board to discuss this matter only in closed sessions and to withhold access pertaining to this project, unless disclosure of those records are consented to by the purchaser.”
Tuesday’s meeting, he said, was the first opportunity the board has had to discuss the project publicly.
EDC comments
Halifax County Economic Development Director Cathy Scott said that since 2015, when the county purchased the property, it began working to develop it as an industrial site. “There was some excellent infrastructure that had been constructed on behalf of what is now Binderholz and that this site could take advantage of that to make it a really competitive industrial site.”
Then the property became a state Select Site. “There’s a utility corridor that is between the US 301 site and the Binderholz facility that has a groundwater storage facility and has a natural gas regulator station. There’s a Halifax Electric Membership Corporation Electric Substation. There is a Dominion substation so there’s really some heavy infrastructure there that could support our future economic development efforts.”
As far as the 251 acres that the county and QDCH are expected to close on, she said, “We came up with a survey of buildable acres on that site so that we could accurately market this property for industrial development.”
The property was zoned heavy industrial when the county first purchased the property. “There are lots of woods and a heavy buffer around the site and limited residential development nearby,” she said. “There are non residential customers connected to this electrical facility.”
When the county began working with what was then named Project Q in 2024, Scott said the company was looking at other locations. “We looked at this property and looked at the opportunities that this piece of property could provide them. Some of the work that we had done through the county’s efforts to make this a viable industrial site was attractive to them because heavy utilities were already there.”
That led to discussions of a $250 million taxable investment by the company, 50 higher-wage jobs, tax revenues at around $1.75 million annually, and an additional $250,000 in annual revenues to Halifax County Schools. “On top of that, no economic development incentives or any other incentives have been offered or provided to this company in any way,” Scott said. “This is not a large hyper scale facility. It’s a smaller scale facility that utilizes modern technology to support less impacts to the community. It’s designed to limit water use, noise, and other off-site impacts. There is a sealed cooling loop. No cooling towers will be utilized with this project.”
She said the site is separated from nearby roads and residences by what she described as substantial setbacks and wooded buffers.
The company will require significant power, Scott said, but “the company will fund any and all costs associated with any electrical upgrades that they need to make themselves upfront.”
QDCH comments
Brendan Morris, QDCH chief development officer, told the audience the facility will be roughly 100,000 square feet.
He said North Carolina “has actually set us up perfectly for this because they actually have a new Senate bill called Senate Bill 730 — also known as the rate payer protection plan. They set up this perfect framework to protect the communities from not paying extra power bills from utilizing water and from making an impact to the environment.”
Morris said the company will not impact wetlands. “The wetlands are staying the way they are right now. We are only building on the buildable property.”
The heavy industrial zoning is attractive to the company, he said. “That there is an existing substation built in partnership with Dominion and Halifax EMC is extremely attractive to us. Then there’s this beautiful treeline that completely surrounds the property which was super attractive to us as well.”
Morris said if a transmission line needs to be upgraded, the company pays for it. The same applied to any substation upgrades. “If the substation breaks we pay for it. Everything is coming from out of our pockets. Everything is funded by us, including the parts and labor as well.”
The loudest factor is the cooling, he said. “That’s facing west, that’s facing towards the wetlands.”
That is about 72 decibels — the equivalent of a semi truck driving by or a busy road. “From there it begins to get quieter and quieter until you hit the treeline. The treeline does a really good job of buffering the sound down. By the time it leaves the property, there’s pretty much no noise.”
Morris said generators will turn on every two weeks or so for about five minutes. “The only time it would actually run is if there was a major grid outage.”
He estimates that while the company is looking at a minimum $250 million investment, it will actually be higher. “Once we have the data center built out, it should be closer to about a billion dollars that will be invested for the 88 megawatts.”
He said the minimum job investment is 50 with a minimum salary of $46,000 a year. “The jobs that we have in front of us will be much higher than that because of the types of jobs that they will be.”
The data center will be built in two phases and will possibly be in service by the end of 2027 with a first phase project of 38 megawatts before going to an 88-megawatt maximum.
Senate Bill 730 excludes evaporative cooling, he said. “Electricity rates should not impact the community. We will be paying for the transmission. We will be paying for the substation. It does not impact the community because we will be paying for those upgrades.”
