Brownsville Data Center, Brownsville, Texas

A proposal to convert a former Walmart and migrant children's shelter at 7480 Padre Island Highway in Brownsville, Cameron County, Texas, into a data center was withdrawn on July 29, 2026, about a week before its zoning hearing. The property owner, Randr Ventures LLC, pulled its request for a specific use permit, and Brownsville has since begun writing a 90-day moratorium on data centers.

The plan would have converted a roughly 265,000-square-foot building on 32 acres near the Port of Brownsville and the airport. Built as a Walmart in 2004, the building most recently housed a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children run by Southwest Key Programs, and is appraised at about $10 million. The city has not said why the proposal was withdrawn or whether it could return.

The plan drew opposition as the Rio Grande Valley's second major data center proposal, after a contested one near Harlingen. At a September 1 hearing on the moratorium, resident Leah Hollingshead told commissioners: "I truly cannot believe that the best use of my time in my one short life is to stand before you and state the obvious by telling you I don't want a data center in my backyard." Commissioners voted that day to start the moratorium and revive a task force to study its effects on power, water and neighborhoods.

Under a new state law the moratorium needs three public hearings; Brownsville has scheduled a second hearing on October 6, a first reading of the ordinance on October 13 and a final vote on November 17. The pause would run from November 18 to February 16, 2027, with an option to extend to May 18, 2027, and the city commission must adopt data center rules before it ends.