Meta
Sidecat data center expansion, New Albany International Business Park (Licking County portion)
tax abatement, approved, approved 2025-12-16
Operator: Meta
Developer: Sidecat LLC
Scale: 488 acres · 900,000 sq ft · 1,500,000,000 USD
Two 2025 restatements combined: 373.356 acres with about 450,000 sq ft and $750 million approved in September, plus 114.7 acres with about 450,000 sq ft and $750 million approved in December. Construction runs to December 2030. No megawatt figure appears in the public record.
Verification: read from the signed document
A strong version: A fund that scales with the project, with a community seat on the body that spends it
Not addressed in the agreement.
community seat: no
No community fund in this agreement. The city runs a separate city-wide mechanism: community development charges collected through a New Community Authority, which the city reports produced about $10 million from data centers in tax year 2024. Agreements also require an annual community participation statement and chamber membership. None of that is a fund with community control.
A strong version: Incentives come back if the facility stops operating, not only if a jobs number is missed
triggers: other · proportional: yes
An unusual and worth-copying structure: instead of a jobs floor, the city sets a minimum annual service payment, and if the four revenue streams it tracks (increment financing, community authority charges, a 2 percent income tax withholding, and payments in lieu) fall short, the company must cure the gap with a payment in lieu or the tax incentive review council can recommend terminating the exemption. The cure is dollar for dollar, so it is proportional. Real examples from 2024: one company paid $134,568 to cure a $6.7 million payroll shortfall and another paid $48,166. For this agreement the minimum payment on additional advanced fabric structures rises from $1.11 to $2.50 per square foot. Nothing is tied to the facility ceasing operation.
A strong version: A bond, escrow, or letter of credit that pays for teardown and site restoration if the operator walks
Nothing in the resolutions. The agreement text itself is on file with the clerk of council and is not published, so this cannot be ruled out.
A strong version: The operator pays for its own interconnection and carries a minimum bill that survives it leaving
interconnect paid by: operator · minimum bill: yes · survives exit: yes · term: 12 yrs · governed by: AEP Ohio Schedule DCT, approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio on July 9, 2025 in case 24-508-EL-ATA
The protection here comes from the state, not the city, and it is the strongest minimum bill in this benchmark. New loads above 25 megawatts ramp at no less than 50, 65, 80 and 90 percent of contract capacity, then pay a billing demand of at least 85 percent of the highest demand in the prior eleven months. The initial term is the ramp plus eight years, so twelve years on a four-year ramp. Exit after year five costs 36 months of minimum charges. Collateral is 50 percent of total minimum charges unless the customer is rated A-minus or better. Interconnection is customer-specific through a letter of agreement or a contribution in aid of construction. Meta's contract capacity is not public. The tariff is under appeal at the Ohio Supreme Court.
A strong version: A stated cap or closed-loop cooling, plus public reporting
cooling: unknown
Both resolutions authorize a water and sewer memorandum of understanding with the city, but its terms are not in the packet and no volumes are published.
A strong version: A numeric limit measured at the nearest residence or property line
Not addressed in the agreement.
No noise term in the agreement. The city falls back on a codified ordinance that compares facility noise to street traffic levels in the nearest residential district, which is not a number. Residents complained in July 2026 after a temporary sound wall came down, and a separate operator's cooling fans drew complaints in September 2025 with a permanent fix promised for December 2026.
A strong version: Binding job commitments with a consequence, not projections
No jobs figure appears in the resolutions or minutes for this expansion. The city's framework measures payroll through income tax withholding rather than headcount, and reports that one hyperscaler's payments equaled a $178 million payroll equivalent in tax year 2024.
A strong version: Local subcontracting goals and haul-route road repair paid by the operator
Not addressed in the agreement.
local subcontracting: no · road repair: no
No local contracting term.
A strong version: No NDA, the agreement is public, and an independent audit on a schedule
agreement public: no · dashboard: yes · audit: annual · independent: yes
Split verdict. The resolutions, minutes and votes are public, and the city runs a genuine public data center site with its own finance figures, which almost nobody else in this benchmark does. But the CRA agreement itself is only on file with the clerk of council and is not posted, so the operative terms are not readable online. The annual review is by a tax incentive review council that statutorily includes the county auditor and school district officials, which makes it independent of the city. In July 2026 council noted a new state law making some economic development submissions confidential.
A strong version: A but-for test before any abatement, with the forgone revenue stated
abatement: 100% · years: 15 · PILOT: yes · but-for test: no
A complete exemption from real property tax on the new buildings for fifteen years, with the land staying taxable and a payment in lieu owed only if the minimum service payment is missed. Both school districts, Johnstown-Monroe and the county career center, waived their statutory right to notice and to approve the agreement, and no compensation payment to the schools appears in the resolutions. The only finding the city had to make is that the company is qualified by financial responsibility and business experience, which is not a but-for test. Forgone revenue for this agreement is not published; the county review council put all twenty New Albany agreements at $6.2 million forgone in tax year 2024 on $225 million of abated value.
Reporting found the city gave up millions at one Meta data center, with fifteen-year exemptions for multiple hyperscalers, against a statewide tally of $282 million in data center tax breaks. source
One operator's state sales tax exemption in New Albany was valued at $72.5 million over fifteen years against a twenty-job commitment. source