Private gain ≠ public benefit.

Private benefits

• Developer revenue

  Lease, sale, or promote fee on the real estate.

• Operator revenue

  Colo rent, cloud, or owned-workload margin.

• Customer savings

  Compute bought here instead of somewhere else.

• Land-sale proceeds

  The seller of the parcel is not the city.

• Investor returns

  Funds, REITs, hyperscaler capex recovery.

• Cloud / AI services revenue

  National product. Local only if the deal captures it.

• Capital appreciation

  The box can be refinanced. That is private.

Community benefits

• Net local tax revenue

  Gross minus abatement, by jurisdiction.

• Construction employment

  Real wages. Finite months.

• Permanent local employment

  Small specialized crews unless the contract says otherwise.

• High-wage technical employment

  A benefit only if the hires are real and local.

• Local procurement

  Invoices, not logos.

• Apprenticeships

  Electricians are the scarce trade.

• University partnerships

  Scoped access, not a press photo.

• Research infrastructure

  An isolated pad the city can actually use.

• Grid improvements

  A public benefit only if ratepayers are not the residual funder.

• Fiber infrastructure

  Diverse routes can outlive the tenant.

• Community / STEM investment

  Dollars, seats, years.

• Public-safety improvements

  If funded and staffed.

• Economic diversification

  A claim until suppliers and students show up.

• Strategic / national-security capability

  Some compute is not optional. Some is ads.

Community costs / risks

• Electricity infrastructure

  Feeders, substations, generation.

• Generation requirements

  New MW somewhere on ERCOT.

• Transmission requirements

  Queue studies are not steel in the ground.

• Water consumption

  Potable vs reclaimed vs evaporated.

• Land consumption

  Hall, gray space, setbacks, substation.

• Noise

  Continuous plant vs test-day generators.

• Backup-generator emissions

  Permitted hours are not zero hours.

• Construction traffic

  Temporary, ugly, real.

• Public incentives / abatements

  A transfer. Read the term sheet.

• Environmental impacts

  Heat, land cover, diesel, water quality.

• Opportunity cost

  That parcel is not housing, a factory, or a park.

• Grid reliability risk

  Sudden drop-off is a NERC concern, not a vibe.

• Stranded-infrastructure risk

  If they leave, who owns the wire?

• Neighborhood incompatibility

  Industrial next to houses is a design failure, not a branding failure.

• Public infrastructure expense

  Roads, fire chemistry, overtime.