Wilsonville Data Center, Wilsonville, Alabama

NorthPoint Development, a Kansas City real estate company, wants to build a 1,008 megawatt data center on land in and around Wilsonville, in Shelby County, Alabama, off County Highway 61. Planning documents describe a 664 acre site with 14 buildings of 219,000 square feet each. NorthPoint holds a two year purchase option on about 687 acres from landowner Richard Cashio, reached in February 2025 and running to February 27, 2027, and as of September 2025 had filed no formal application with the town or county.

The land lies along Lick Branch, a tributary of the Coosa River, about 2.5 miles from Alabama Power's Gaston plant; the project's projected peak demand of 1,008 megawatts is more than half the plant's 1,880 megawatt capacity. Town leaders have acknowledged gaps in water supply and fire protection for a project that size. More than 100 residents packed the Aug. 18, 2025 council meeting, many carrying signs reading "No Wilsonville Data Center," and residents packed a second meeting on Sept. 4.

Former mayor Lee McCarty said the project would be "extremely detrimental to the community." Resident Renny Stanhope said, "All I know is, the people selling this land and the people brokering the deal, that's going to be their legacy, to potentially destroy a small town." Lifelong resident Alicia Towndrow told the council in September, "I know that this is agricultural land, it was zoned that for a reason. We want to keep it that way." Residents have also asked council members to pledge not to sign non-disclosure agreements; Mayor Ricky Morris says he has not signed one.

Who decides depends on where the land lies: about a third is inside Wilsonville and the rest is unincorporated Shelby County land known as Fourmile. An annexation or rezoning request would go to the Wilsonville Town Council. Shelby County Manager Chad Scroggins said the county land is zoned agricultural, that a rezoning would be "very difficult," and that any proposal would get public advertising and comment periods. Neither NorthPoint nor Cashio has responded to reporters' requests for comment, and Mayor Morris has told residents, "When we have something to discuss, it will be on the agenda."