Word gets out about second Grant County data center – despite NDAs

Grant County has both a second data center and a large natural gas power plant to feed electricity to it in the works, according to a county official. 

The projects have not been announced, and not much is publicly known about either one because, like other data center projects – the ones in Little Rock, Wrightsville and West Memphis, for example – where Entergy and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission are players, many people in a position to know something have signed nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). 

A few details have emerged, however. According to Grant County Judge Randy Pruitt, the data center would be located on 2,000 acres of land along state Highway 46 not far from Redfield. Less is known about Entergy’s natural gas power plant, other than the fact that Pruitt said he had heard it is being planned. 

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission can legally avoid producing information requested about potential business interests when the businesses involved want it to stay under wraps. The state agency did just that when we asked for information about this second data center plan. Entergy doesn’t talk about its plans either and is known for its reliance on NDAs.

In July, The New York Times published two stories on a $50 billion data center, covering six square miles, in northeast Louisiana, said to be one of the largest in the world. The accounts described how all the complicated pieces were put together by officials who hid what they were doing behind NDAs. 

“Behind the scenes, an extraordinary amount of secrecy was necessary to pull it off,” said one of the stories. “Energy company executives, Louisiana’s governor, state and local officials and representatives of Meta worked on the deal over nine months before it was made public. The project’s speed and covertness have been trumpeted as a model for the entire tech industry.”

And who pulled it all together? 

“Phillip May, Entergy Louisiana’s chief executive, was involved in every step of the process,” said the story, “from securing a tax rebate on data center equipment to buying nearby land and drafting nondisclosure agreements for government officials.”

Considering that Entergy Louisiana is a sister company to Entergy Arkansas, it would not be a stretch to conclude that the secret dealings that went on – are going on – in Louisiana are being copied and pasted in Arkansas. Certainly, crucial details are unknown about several of the data centers under consideration in Arkansas because public officials have signed NDAs. 

Not surprising, Entergy declined to comment for this story. They have been quick to text the Arkansas Times about Entergy-related news coverage they did not like, but when we texted and then called them to ask about the second data center in Grant County, they didn’t respond.

In some ways, this is the tale of two data centers and how NDAs have been used to shape one of the projects and, in some instances, split members of the community into those who have signed NDAs and those who have not. 

In summer 2025, officials with Clean Cloud Energy came to the Grant County Quorum Court to state their interest in bringing a data center to the area. That project, which involves C&L Electric Cooperative Corp., has been out in the open – warts and all – ever since, with no NDAs in sight. Where it would be located, how much electricity it would need, the identity of the company that would ultimately operate the facility, how much water it would need – all that information came out for public perusal as the plans for the project matured.

There has been political backlash, intense opposition from residents, wild accusations about those involved and a lawsuit alleging that the county judge and Quorum Court were guilty of violating the Freedom of Information Act. A judge dismissed the case. Despite all that, a company called EdgeConneX is currently doing its due diligence as a precursor to buying the project from Clean Cloud Energy, according to a Clean Cloud Energy official.

The most prominent person who has not signed an NDA is County Judge Pruitt. If the company that operates the planned data center wants a reduction in their taxes, a perk made possible by Arkansas’ Act 9 of 1960, they will eventually have to knock on his door, because the decision to grant that tax relief is his and his alone. Until then, he’s mostly out of the loop, other than for a handful of meetings he’s been invited to and the whispers he’s heard. One of those meetings was memorable and had to do with George Murray.

Murray is a recent transplant to the Sheridan area. He was an engineer and worked on a variety of large industrial projects during his career. He’s retired now, but when he moved to town, it was about the same time as the Clean Cloud Energy project was starting to be discussed – and argued about. Murray offered his expertise by creating an online space where residents could ask questions and he would try to answer them. 

By his account, that effort mostly failed. Only a handful of people responded to his platform, but lots of people took to social media to disparage him, some alleging that he worked for Clean Cloud Energy.

Still, because of Murray’s experience, Pruitt asked him to be a part of a small group of individuals the county judge could turn to for advice in dealing with big corporations, think Google or Meta, wanting to invest billions of dollars into the community for a data center. Pruitt, Murray and Justice of the Peace Mike Nevens made a splash earlier this year when they made public what they would require of a data center in Grant County, saying they didn’t want to see it, hear it, smell it, etc. They also said that to get to a full 65% abatement of taxes – the most Act 9 allows – the data center owner would have to pony up close to $60 million in an upfront payment that would be used for a variety of public and nonprofit purposes. The bottom line, the men said, was that sure, you can bring your data center to Grant County, but it’s going to cost you, and if you don’t want to do that, we’re OK without you.

So when Pruitt was invited to a meeting about the water needs of a second data center, he asked Murray to go with him. It did not go well.

The meeting, hosted by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, was held in early June at Resource Management Service’s Sheridan office. RMS, as it is called, manages timber for a variety of landowners, and it is the one that would arrange the land sale for the data center. At the meeting were state economic development officials, along with representatives from Entergy, the company that would use the data center and county officials, with most appearing via Zoom.

“When they started talking about the water needs of the data center, Mr. Murray started asking questions and after a while he starts pointing out errors. He got way deep in the weeds and then poof, they were gone,”  Pruitt said, referring to the economic development officials and others who were on the Zoom call. “They disappeared from the screen.”

Pruitt said he got a call the next day from Entergy executive Danny Games, who apologized for “my guy giving out bad info,” according to Pruitt, who said he also got a call from the Economic Development Commission saying that Murray would not be invited back to another meeting. 

“I said, ‘How about this? How about if you don’t invite me back because I am not going to sign an NDA?’” Pruitt said. 

The county judge said he bristles at the secrecy over who will ultimately operate the data center. When he asked during the call what the identity of the data center company was, the official from the company said Pruitt might not know the answer to that until ground was broken.

Pruitt is not exactly comfortable in the position he now finds himself. He spent 30 years working for Grant County in a variety of capacities, then ended up as acting county judge when his predecessor, Kemp Nall, became ill in 2016. Because Pruitt was so well liked, he became county judge when Nall died. That good will has evaporated to some extent because of all the negativity associated with the Clean Cloud Energy data center project. 

Now, Pruitt said, he cringes at the thought of the curtain opening on this second data center plan and all the accusations that will fly when that happens. To say he is looking forward to retirement at the end of the year – and not having to think or hear about data centers – would be an understatement.

“I have a timer on my desk that tells me how many days, hours and seconds I have before I am officially retired,” he said.

In the meantime, he also does not like talking to the media about this second data center, although he has made a point to say that, while he may not volunteer what he knows, he will not lie about it if asked. That is despite the fact that telling all will irritate, perhaps infuriate, friends he’s had for 50 years who are connected to the data center project. 

The pressure was so sharp that one person who spoke freely to this publication about the second data center called back to ask that he be left out of the story. He worried about the safety of his family and said he was almost certain he would be sued by Entergy for speaking out.

The downside to not signing an NDA is that to a great extent, Pruitt is cut out of the conversation. He doesn’t know what’s going on and just hears “bits and pieces,” as he put it. On the other hand, he said, signing one and keeping secret a project the public would have a keen interest in would be a public relations nightmare.

Justice of the Peace Nevens agreed. He hasn’t signed an NDA for this second data center project either, but considered it.

“I’ll be honest, I thought about it,” he said. “I would rather not be on the outside looking in on these projects. If you’re not at the table, you don’t know what’s going on. Personally and professionally, I don’t have a problem with NDAs. But as a public official, I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”

Nevens said he was invited to one of the data center meetings and asked several questions but got no answers.

“I asked how big it was, no answer,” he said. “I asked who the company was, no answer. I asked where it was going to be, no answer. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”

And even though Pruitt did not sign an NDA, he’s still going to take a hit, no matter what, Nevens said.

“Randy will still get roasted for it,” Nevens said. “He’ll get roasted because he didn’t stand up in a Quorum Court meeting and say, ‘This company asked me to sign an NDA and this is what I’ve heard is going on.’ But he would never stand up and talk about things that aren’t part of the county’s business. So he’ll get roasted because he didn’t spill his guts about a project coming to Grant County.”

The new incoming county judge, Ron Casey, who takes over in January, said he would not sign an NDA either.

“I’m a conservative Christian person, and lying is just against my belief system,” he said. “I don’t want to be put in a position where I can’t be truthful to the public. I’m not going to start my administration doing that. I’m not going to start my administration shrouded in secrecy.”

Key individuals who signed NDAs are Sheridan Mayor Cain Nattin, Craig Manatt, who is the president and CEO of Peoples Bank, and Bobby Taylor, head of Shelby Taylor Trucking.

All three are members of the Grant County Industrial Development Corp., known as the GCIDC. The corporation gets bandied about in conversations about its involvement with data centers, but Manatt and Taylor said the members are simply unpaid ambassadors.

“Someone calls the state AEDC and says they are interested in bringing a business or some type of industry to the state and they’ve identified Grant County as a possible location,” Manatt said. “The AEDC calls us, and we put the business in touch with the appropriate entity. That could be the county judge or mayor or school district. We’re not a data center proponent or opponent. We put them in touch with decision-makers. We aren’t decision-makers.”

Manatt said NDAs were just part of the process. 

“An NDA allows the various entities some breathing room,” he said. “It allows an idea to become a concept and a concept to become a project.”

Taylor said Grant County needs a full-time economic development coordinator, but in the absence of one, the various members of the Grant County Industrial Development Corp. will have to suffice.

“I want jobs here,” Taylor said. “I want economic development, a plant, a factory, something. It’s a thankless job for us because we have our day jobs and we don’t get paid for any of it.” 

Asked if he thought the Grant County Industrial Development Corp. would be blamed if and when a second data center project is announced, Taylor said that was likely.

“I’m sure we will be,” he said.

Sheridan Mayor Nattin was brought into the conversation, possibly because water might be needed from the city’s treatment plant to service a second data center. He said he needed to sign the NDA to stay abreast of the data center developments. 

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, Nattin sent copies of the NDAs that he and David Fitzgerald, head of the city’s water and sewer department, signed in April relating to the second data center, although he redacted the name of the development company behind the project.

Nattin said his signature on the form did not mean he was for or against the data center, adding that he looked at such big companies with suspicion.

“Should we trust big tech?” Nattin said. “Not really. They will do what’s in the best interest of their profits.”

As for providing water and sewer service to the proposed data center site that’s closer to Redfield than Sheridan, Nattin indicated it seemed unlikely, acknowledging plans for the data center in a more concrete way than anyone else who had signed an NDA.

“This second project, from what I hear, is nowhere near the city limits of Sheridan,” he said.

In Louisiana, which is seeing an influx of data center projects, the topic of NDAs has roiled lawmakers, some of whom have signed them and then, faced with public pushback, sought to be released from them. 

State Rep. Danny McCormick, a Louisiana Republican who represents an area where an Amazon data center will be built, told the Gulf States Newsroom that the NDAs exist for one reason: “They don’t want the little people to know what they’re doing until after they’ve done it,” he said.

With data center proposals popping up with more frequency around Arkansas, the spread of the facilities is starting to hit the radar of state lawmakers because of the public’s opposition to them.

“I think definitely there are conversations going on about data centers,” said Sen. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock). “It’s far too early to know how that will shake out. But legislators are aware of the concern about data centers, and there’s a general feeling that we should do something about it.”

In 2023, the Legislature passed what became Act 851, which restricts the ability of cities and counties to put many controls on data centers. Tucker, however, said there could be some effort during next year’s legislative session to amend the law and give local elected officials more leeway to make their own decisions about data centers. 

And at an energy conference held recently in Little Rock, three lawmakers expressed frustration with the state’s Generating Arkansas Jobs Act, which was passed in 2025 and allows Entergy and other electric providers to charge existing customers for the construction costs for the power needed by data centers and other large industrial developments. Customers will now fund solar arrays, batteries and gas-fired power plants up front, to make way for data centers and their voracious appetites for electricity. Before the act was passed, customers didn’t start paying for those facilities until they were built. 

The Generating Arkansas Jobs Act charges started hitting customers’ bills in June, with Entergy using the money collected under this line item to build a solar farm in Jefferson County. The electricity from the solar array will offset the power needed for a data center in West Memphis. 

One of the conference attendees, Sen. Mark Johnson (R-Little Rock), said he thought the Generating Arkansas Jobs Act inappropriately charged customers for what Entergy’s investors should be paying for.

“(N)ow, ratepayers are paying for capital expenditures, and that puts us going down a dangerous road,” Johnson said. “This is the wrong way to do this. That’s a cost shift that’s not appropriate.” 

Johnson said he thought NDAs had been “overused” when it came to data centers and that it should be up to the legislature to figure out a way to balance a business’ need to keep certain details confidential with the public’s right to know what is going on in their own backyard.