A Dallas-based developer wants to build a data center on nearly 40 acres along Prosper's northern edge, and residents will get their first chance to weigh in at a public hearing on Aug. 18.
White Rose Partners is proposing "Project Tomahawk" on 39.3 acres near the southeast corner of FM 1385 and Parvin Road, according to Community Impact, which first reported the proposal Friday, Aug. 7. The Prosper Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on the project that evening, town staff confirmed at a Tuesday, Aug. 4, meeting.
David Hoover, Prosper's director of Development Services, said the developer first approached town staff about 60 days before the Aug. 7 report, placing initial conversations around early June. Staff flagged three concerns: power demand, water use and noise.
"With all the press that goes on with data centers, we had a lot of questions," Hoover told Community Impact in the Friday, Aug. 7, report.
The developer's proposal addresses each concern. The site sits adjacent to a Brazos Electric Power Cooperative substation, and White Rose Partners says it will pay for any upgrades the facility's power draw requires. The project would use a closed-loop cooling system to limit water consumption and include sound-dampening screens and landscaping to reduce noise, according to Community Impact's reporting on the developer's proposed standards.
White Rose Partners, founded in 2020 and headquartered on Howell Street in Dallas, lists $11 billion in total project value and more than 2,000 megawatts delivered across its portfolio. President Stephen L. Sacks leads a team of fewer than 10 employees.
State pause adds uncertainty
The proposal lands days after Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday, Aug. 3, directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to pause approvals of data centers seeking grid connections pending a statewide audit. Abbott said ERCOT is tracking more than 1,800 projects in its queue representing over 474 gigawatts of electricity, roughly five times the grid's all-time peak demand. About 90% of those requests come from data centers, according to the Texas Tribune.
ERCOT responded by postponing its "Batch Zero" review of large-load projects, which had been scheduled to issue classifications on Friday, Aug. 7, according to a Jones Day analysis. No completion date for the audit has been announced.
It remains unclear whether Abbott's pause directly affects Project Tomahawk's local zoning process. The governor's directive targets grid-connection approvals, a separate track from the town's land-use decision. The developer's website states the project will work with federal, state and local officials to meet all requirements but does not address the Monday, Aug. 3, moratorium.
What happens next
The town must release official application documents for Project Tomahawk at least three business days before the Aug. 18 hearing under the Texas Open Meetings Act. As of Friday, Aug. 7, those documents had not been published.
If the Planning and Zoning Commission recommends approval, the proposal would advance to the Prosper Town Council for a final vote. No council hearing date has been set.
