A Kentucky mother and daughter turned down a combined $26 million offer for their farmland from a developer representing a mysterious Fortune 100 company that sought to build a massive data center on the land.
Ida Huddleston said she has rejected the staggering offer for her 71-acre property in Mason County — valued at $60,000 per acre for a total of $4.26 million — multiple times and is fed up with the developer’s persistence, LEX 18 reported.
The 82-year-old’s daughter, Delsia Bare, said the developer also offered $48,000 per acre for her 463-acre property — totaling more than $22 million — but she refused to sell.
“I said I don’t want your money, I don’t need your money, but I do feel sorry for everybody around us,” Huddleston told the outlet.
The pair turned down the deal because they believe the data center would affect everyone in the community, adding that the developer’s continued pressure to sell has only hardened their determination not to give up even a single acre.
They said the secrecy surrounding the project — particularly the company’s refusal to reveal its identity — has only fueled their determination to keep their land.
“When they will not reveal who they are that’s a major player in what you’re going to do with the rest of your life if you are stuck here or even if you are leaving here,” Bare said.
The proposed data center would be built near Big Pond Pike Road in rural Kentucky, around an hour and a half from Lexington.
Several landowners have already been approached about selling farmland for the project — a development local officials say could transform the region economically, according to LEX 18.
“As far as jobs would go, they would become, if not our largest employer, definitely top three,” Tyler McHugh, economic development director for the Maysville-Mason County Industrial Development Authority, told the outlet.
McHugh said the data center could create around 400 full-time jobs and more than 1,500 construction jobs in the county and surrounding area.
However, the mother and daughter remain skeptical that those jobs will remain once the project is built.
“My guess is you won’t have over 50 and they won’t even be here at this building when it’s said and done,” Bare said.
As for her 82-year-old mother, she said nothing will make her budge.
“I’m staying put,” Huddleston told the outlet.
Despite the women’s unwillingness to sell their land, the Mason County Fiscal Court still needs to approve the project, LEX 18 reported.
Tech giants are swarming around rural cities to build their data centers.
Last week, George Washington University sold its Virginia Science and Technology Campus to Amazon Data Services to turn the site into a data center.
The company purchased the land for $427 million, according to The Hatchet.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is planning to build 15 data centers in Mount Pleasant, Michigan after purchasing the land in 2024, the Biz Times reported in January.
