Data centers in Crook County, Oregon: 2 projects mapped

Imagery: Esri, Maxar

Prineville, the seat of Crook County, has hosted large Meta and Apple data center campuses for about 15 years. Meta began building in 2010, and by July 2026 the campus, the company's largest in the country, covered 11 buildings and 4.6 million square feet, with about $2 billion invested. Apple has released much less about its Prineville campus and did not answer local reporters' questions. A city analysis this year put data center employment at about 700 people, most of the jobs added in Prineville since 2008.

Both companies came under property tax exemptions through Oregon's Long-Term Rural Enterprise Zone program, and neither has paid local property taxes so far; the Crook County Assessor's Office put this year's exempted value for data centers at more than $130 million. The 15-year exemptions start expiring next year, and City Manager Steve Forrester says Prineville will roughly double its property tax revenue once they do. Fees that power utilities pay for street access have grown from about $430,000 in 2011 to nearly $11 million. "We are more financially stable now than we have ever been because of the revenue generated by the data center," said longtime councilor Steve Uffelman, filling in as mayor after Jason Beebe resigned in June 2026.

Water is the bigger local worry. Prineville's underground water storage system, funded by Meta and Apple, holds about a year's supply, but state regulators have been limiting new municipal water in the Deschutes Basin as aquifer levels decline. Researchers told a state advisory committee that Meta's Prineville campus used about 70 million gallons of water in 2024, roughly what 420 Prineville households used in 2021. "Everybody I've talked to, they don't want more data centers," said Julie Thompson, a candidate for Crook County commission. Prineville leaders say they probably will not negotiate a full property tax break for the next data center that comes; the governor's Data Center Advisory Committee is due to recommend statewide rules in October 2026.

Every project above is drawn from public records, filings and local reporting. Each row links to what it is based on. Statuses change, so check the source date before you rely on one. Found something wrong? Write to [email protected] and it gets fixed.