Texas told TCEQ on September 21 to stop issuing permits to data centers, islanded ones included, until ERCOT and the water board finish audits in December. Loudoun voted 7-1 for a twelve-month application pause three days earlier. Prince William killed by-right data center development on the 22nd and turned down Dominion's Vint Hill switching station 8-0 the same night. Against that tape, the deals that still printed this week have exactly one thing in common: the permitting fight was already over before the check cleared. That certainty now has a price, and this week we got to read it.

Five prints, one of them small enough to build in a business park: Skanska books $84 million to build 48 MW in Georgia at 196 W/sf; GI Partners pays $2.7 million an acre for five and a half acres next to an APS substation a mile from downtown Phoenix, and 5C AI pays $201 a foot for a warehouse three miles west of it, both cleared by Prop 207 waivers; Kodiak signs six years of behind-the-meter gas for a West Texas site whose lease is guaranteed by a chip company; CleanSpark closes $2.276 billion of 7.875 percent project notes on a Meta-guaranteed NNN lease that pencils to $157 a kilowatt-month; and Zone Frontier ground-leases 4,077 acres around an Xcel 345 kV substation with rent that starts when the concrete does. Two of those are over 75 MW. They are here because they are the comps everything under 75 MW will now price against.

$84 Million for 48 MW: A $1.75 Million-per-Megawatt GC Comp at 196 Watts a Foot

Skanska signed a contract on September 22 to build a roughly 244,730 sf data center in Georgia for an existing client: five colocation halls plus administrative space, designed for 48 MW. The scope is turnkey, not shell. Civil, structural, utilities, electrical, mechanical, security, interior fit-out and commissioning of the major equipment are all inside the $84 million contract value, which books into Skanska USA's third-quarter orders. Construction starts in November, completion is slated for the third quarter of 2028.

Do the arithmetic and you get the two numbers a 30-to-60 MW developer actually wants. Forty-eight megawatts across 244,730 sf is 196 W/sf gross, which is an air-cooled colo spec, not an inference-density spec, and that tells you what the client is: a multi-tenant operator building for the enterprise book, not a neocloud building for a single GPU tenant. And $84 million divided by 48 MW is $1.75 million per megawatt for the general contractor's scope alone, or $343 a foot. That is not all-in capex; the client is buying switchgear, gensets and chillers separately, and land and interconnection sit outside it. But it is a clean, public, current-quarter mark for what a turnkey five-hall build costs in the Southeast, from a GC that has now signed four Georgia data center contracts for the same or similar client, the prior three reportedly at $75 million, $238 million and $255 million. Skanska did not name the client or the town. A 22-month build on a 48 MW box is not a rush job, which suggests the power date, not the building, is the gating item.

Deal specs. Sponsor: undisclosed existing client (owner); Skanska USA Building (GC) · Site: Georgia, town n/d · Footprint: ~245 ksf, five colo halls plus admin · Load: 48 MW design (~196 W/sf gross, computed) · Lease: n/d; GC construction contract, start Nov 2026, complete Q3 2028 · Deal value: $84M GC scope (~$1.75M/MW, ~$343/sf, computed) · Source: Skanska press release.

$2.7 Million an Acre and $201 a Foot: What Phoenix Infill Trades For Once the Waiver Is Signed

Phoenix adopted a data center zoning ordinance last year, and the market's answer has been Proposition 207, Arizona's 2006 private-property-rights law that lets an owner claim compensation when a new land-use rule reduces the value of a parcel. The city's response, in at least two cases now, has been to waive enforcement rather than pay. Both waivered sites traded this month, and together they give you a two-point price curve for entitled infill in the fifth-largest city in the country.

Point one: on September 17, GI Partners paid $14,720,919 for 5.43 acres at the southeast corner of 7th Avenue and Grant Street, about a mile south of the downtown core and well inside city limits, according to Maricopa County records reported by the Phoenix Business Journal. Seller LKY Development bought it for $3.15 million in 2012, a 4.7x mark over fourteen years, and spent a chunk of those years working with APS to expand the substation the parcel sits next to. That works out to $2.71 million an acre for dirt with a substation on the fence line and a city concession in hand. No tenant, no MW figure and no building were disclosed, which is fine; the buyer is a $49 billion private-equity shop with a Scottsdale office, and the value it paid for is the ability to file a site plan without a fight.

Point two: 5C AI's $22.75 million purchase of a vacant 113,414 sf industrial building at McDowell Road and 27th Avenue, about three miles west-northwest of downtown, closed September 2 and made the rounds of the trade press this week. The Phoenix City Council had voted on July 1 to bind itself not to enforce Ordinance G-7396 against the site after 5C filed its Prop 207 claim, per the same PBJ reporting. Seller Hanson Capital paid $9.5 million in 2021. That is $201 a foot for a warehouse shell, a 2.4x mark in five years, in a submarket where generic industrial does not trade anywhere near that. 5C did not disclose a load figure; its existing PHX01 site is listed in the 18 MW range, and a 113 ksf single-story conversion at conventional densities lands in the same neighborhood. The spread between $201 a foot for a shell and $2.7 million an acre for bare land is the market pricing the difference between a conversion you can start in months and a ground-up build that needs a substation expansion already done. Both, notably, sit inside a city that just passed rules to slow this down. The rules slowed everyone except the two sponsors who had already filed.

Deal specs. Sponsor: GI Partners (buyer), LKY Development (seller) · Site: SE corner 7th Ave and Grant St, within Phoenix city limits, ~1 mi S of downtown · Footprint: 5.43 acres (~237 ksf land); building n/d · Load: n/d; adjacent APS substation expanded for data center load · Lease: fee-simple acquisition; Prop 207 waiver of city data center ordinance in hand · Deal value: $14.72M (~$2.71M/acre, computed; 2012 basis $3.15M) · Source: KTAR / Phoenix Business Journal.

Deal specs. Sponsor: 5C AI (buyer), Hanson Capital Group (seller) · Site: NW corner McDowell Rd and 27th Ave, within Phoenix city limits, ~3 mi WNW of downtown · Footprint: 113.4 ksf existing single-story industrial · Load: n/d · Lease: fee-simple acquisition for conversion; council-approved waiver of Ordinance G-7396 (July 1) · Deal value: $22.75M (~$201/sf, computed; 2021 basis $9.5M) · Source: ABC15 / Phoenix Business Journal.

76 MW, Six Years, Forty Recips, and a Chip Designer on the Lease

Kodiak Gas Services announced on September 21, the same day Governor Abbott's TCEQ order landed, a six-year agreement to supply 76 MW of behind-the-meter baseload power, balance of plant included, to a West Texas data center inside Kodiak's existing Permian compression footprint. The fleet is roughly forty reciprocating natural-gas generation units, about 1.9 MW apiece, deploying from the fourth quarter of this year and scaling into the first quarter of 2027, with revenue starting in that quarter. It is Kodiak's second long-term data center power contract and puts about half of its power fleet under long-term paper, per the company's release.

Seventy-six megawatts sits one megawatt over this newsletter's line, and the reason it is here is the credit stack, which is the best one printed this week at any size. The unnamed operator is contracted to an investment-grade hyperscaler, and the data center lease is guaranteed by a GPU designer. Read that as the chip vendor backstopping the rent so the operator can sign a power contract it could not otherwise carry, and the power provider taking a six-year term, not fifteen, because the equipment is redeployable compression-grade iron and the counterparty is not the operator's balance sheet. Six years is also shorter than any lease term in this issue, which tells you what a gas fleet owner thinks the useful life of a 2026 inference hall is before somebody renegotiates. Whether the site's air permit was already in hand before September 21 is the question the release does not answer, and the one that determines whether this template survives the freeze.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Kodiak Gas Services (power provider); undisclosed operator (payor); IG hyperscaler (tenant); undisclosed GPU designer (lease guarantor) · Site: West Texas, Permian footprint; town n/d · Footprint: n/d · Load: 76 MW generation capacity, ~40 recip units (~1.9 MW each, computed); IT load n/d · Lease: 6-yr behind-the-meter power supply agreement incl. balance of plant; escalator n/d; hyperscaler tenant, GPU-designer guarantee · Deal value: n/d · Source: Kodiak IR.

7.875 Percent and $13 Million a Megawatt: The Project-Debt Price of a Meta Guarantee

This one is 175 MW, more than double the line, and it is here because every take-or-pay under 75 MW that goes to a lender in the next quarter will be marked against it. CleanSpark's financing subsidiary priced $2.276 billion of 7.875 percent senior secured notes due 2031 on September 18 at 98.5, and closed on September 25, first lien on substantially all the assets of the Sandersville, Georgia project entity plus a pledge of the issuer's equity, with a completion guarantee from the parent, per the closing 8-K. Proceeds finish the build, reimburse equity already spent, and fund the debt-service reserve.

The asset underneath is a 20-year, roughly 100 percent NNN lease to Anviran, a Meta entity, with Meta guaranteeing rent and operating expenses, a 3 percent annual escalator, two five-year options, rent commencing November 30, 2027, and construction wrapping March 2028, according to Blockspace's read of the deal book. Development cost is about $11.9 million per megawatt; average NOI is about $330 million a year. Divide the notes by the load and you get $13.0 million of debt per megawatt on $11.9 million of cost, which sounds upside-down until you remember the equity reimbursement and the reserve account are inside the sizing. Divide the NOI by 175,000 kW and twelve months and you get $157 per kilowatt-month of base rent, which lands within four dollars of the $161 a kilowatt-month East Tulsa comp from two issues ago, on a lease four times the size with a guarantor several notches better. Cash interest is about $179 million a year, so NOI covers it roughly 1.84x. That is the market's number for hyperscaler-guaranteed rent in the Southeast, and if you are pitching a 40 MW take-or-pay to a lender at 9 and a half percent, this is the sheet they will have open on the other screen.

Deal specs. Sponsor: CleanSpark (developer/landlord); Anviran (Meta) tenant; Meta guarantor · Site: Sandersville, Washington County, GA; parcel n/d · Footprint: n/d · Load: 175 MW critical IT · Lease: 20-yr ~100% NNN, 3% annual escalator, two 5-yr options, rent commences Nov 30, 2027; investment-grade hyperscaler guarantee · Deal value: $2.276B 7.875% notes due 2031 at 98.5 (~$13.0M/MW debt, computed); ~$11.9M/MW dev cost; ~$157/kW-month base rent (computed from ~$330M NOI) · Source: CleanSpark 8-K (pricing).

Rent Starts When You Pour: A Panhandle Ground Lease Wrapped Around a 345 kV Substation

The last one is a land structure, not a power number, and it is the one a 20 MW developer without a balance sheet should photocopy. On September 29, Zone Frontier signed a ground lease on about 4,077 acres in Potter County, outside Amarillo, on land that surrounds Southwestern Public Service's existing Potter County 345 kV substation in SPP territory, per the company's release. Zone can designate 200 to 800 acres for data center use and at least 1,800 acres for solar and storage. It is pitching 200 MW initially and more than 500 MW eventually, which puts it over the line; it is in the issue for the lease terms, which scale down to any size.

The terms: thirty years, two ten-year extensions, a purchase option on the data center parcel, a co-terminous water supply agreement on the appurtenant water rights, and base rent that begins for each site area only when construction starts on that area. That last clause is the whole trade. Zone is a small-cap with a Minnesota campus, a ten-year Cerebras colocation agreement that does not produce revenue until the first half of next year, and no named tenant in Texas. It has just controlled four thousand acres around a transmission substation, with water, adjacent to two gas pipelines, at a carry cost of roughly zero until it finds a customer. The landowner, undisclosed, gets a purchase-option strike and a rent stream that is real the moment anyone pours a slab. If you are trying to tie up a 60-acre pad next to a 138 kV sub in a county that will still talk to you, this is the term sheet: option the land, make the rent construction-contingent, get the water rights inside the same instrument, and let the utility's substation do the marketing.

Deal specs. Sponsor: Zone Frontier (lessee/developer) with HST Technologies; landowner undisclosed; no tenant yet · Site: Potter County, TX, Amarillo metro; surrounds SPS/Xcel Potter County 345 kV substation (SPP); miles to Amarillo city limits n/d · Footprint: 4,077 acres; 200 to 800 ac data center, 1,800+ ac generation · Load: 200 MW initial, 500+ MW potential; density n/d · Lease: 30-yr ground lease plus two 10-yr extensions; rent commences per area at construction start; purchase option; co-terminous water supply agreement; no tenant credit yet · Deal value: n/d · Source: Zone Frontier press release.

What to Watch Next Week

Buffalo's two-year ban, tonight. The Common Council takes its full vote on a two-year data center and crypto-mining ban; the sponsor expects near-unanimous passage and the mayor's signature is the open question, per WGRZ. Oakland's full council votes on a 45-day moratorium October 6.

The Fermi and TensorWave 222 MW closing, October 31. The parties pushed the Project Matador lease closing from September 30 to October 31 via a first amendment on September 22, per the announcement. A second extension would say more than the first did.

TCEQ's compliance report, October 19. The agency owes the governor a report on the permit halt by then, and ERCOT's audit is expected mid-December, per Bracewell's summary of the order. Every behind-the-meter deal in Texas, Kodiak's included, is on hold for air permits it has not already pulled.

Statesboro's end user. 4AM Development says it is close to signing one of several end users for the 99 MW, 230 ksf Burkhalter Road site, the 430 W/sf building this newsletter flagged in August, while eleven residents petition Superior Court to void the rezoning, per the Statesboro Herald. The city manager will not consider the special-use permit without a named tenant. A name would be a print; a ruling would be a precedent.

Salem Township and Pulaski County, October. Salem Township, Pennsylvania supervisors take up the 4,000-acre overlay for the $1.4 billion Salem 3 campus after a 4-3 planning-commission recommendation on September 24, the third such vote after the prior one was voided under the Sunshine Act. In Arkansas, Pulaski County's high-density digital infrastructure ordinance passed 11-4 on September 22 and the veto-override window runs to October 27.

Disclaimer: Edge Cases is Barrio Energy's deal-flow product. Nothing here is investment advice, a recommendation to transact, or a substitute for your own diligence. Specs are sourced from public filings, press, and reporting; verify before you wire anything.