On January 6, 2026, the Marana Town Council held public hearings and votes on two related rezoning applications for a proposed 600-acre data center campus (Luckett Road North and Luckett Road South), representing what was described as the largest private capital investment in Southern Arizona’s history at roughly $5 billion. Both items ultimately passed by a 6-0 vote.
Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.
A Xero-Local-Incentive Deal
Unlike many large economic development projects, town staff and outside speakers repeatedly emphasized that this project requested no local incentives at all. Marana’s own job-creation incentive ordinance specifically excludes data centers from eligibility, and the applicant’s independent economic analysis was built without factoring in any town-level incentive offset. Instead, Beale is fully funding all required infrastructure, including an estimated $20 million road extension, $15-20 million potable water extension, $15-20 million wastewater extension, and a multimillion-dollar contribution toward a regional drainage channel, all of which become town-owned infrastructure once complete.
Substantial Projected Tax Revenue
An independent third-party economic analysis presented at the meeting projected $407 million in combined state, county, and local tax revenue over the first ten years of just the project’s first phase, including $145 million directly to the Town of Marana, roughly $25 million to the Marana school district, and over $15 million to the local fire district. Speakers translated these figures into concrete terms – the fire district noted that $1.5 million per year, a fraction of its projected share, would be enough to fully staff an entire new fire station.
Jobs and Workforce Commitments
The project is projected to generate approximately 4,200 construction jobs over the first phase (2026-2030) and 400 permanent on-site jobs (engineering, technical operations, and security roles). Multiple building trades unions – including electricians, ironworkers, carpenters, laborers, and painters – spoke in strong support of the project. They emphasized that current work often requires two-plus hour commutes each way to the Phoenix area or travel out of state, away from their families, and that a local project of this scale would let them work and build careers close to home. Beale representatives also described early partnerships with Pima Community College and the Marana Unified School District to build local training pipelines.
Addressing Water and Cooling Concerns Directly
The project is designed as a fully air-cooled, closed-loop system that will not use potable water for cooling. Beale stated this results in a 98% reduction in water use across the 600 acres compared to its current agricultural use (roughly 2,000 acre-feet/year today down to about 40 acre-feet/year), and confirmed they are not requesting any variance from Marana’s data center ordinance, which already prohibits use of the town’s potable water for cooling. Town staff confirmed this ordinance, adopted roughly a year prior partly at the recommendation of another Arizona municipality (Chandler), was the first of its kind in the state adopted proactively, before any data center project was proposed.
Utility Assurances on Rate Impacts
Representatives from both regional utilities, Trico Electric Cooperative and Tucson Electric Power (TEP), addressed the frequently raised concern that the project would raise electricity rates for existing residential customers. Both stated unequivocally that the data center’s infrastructure costs (substations and transmission lines) are being borne entirely by Beale, with financial guarantees such as letters of credit and bonds in place before construction begins. They also noted that a scheduled 2026 rate increase already implemented was based on 2022-2023 cost data unrelated to the data center. Both utilities’ representatives stated the additional stable revenue from the project could help push future base rate increases further out for existing customers, since fixed infrastructure costs would be spread across a larger sales base.
A Robust Public Debate
The meeting drew a large and vocal mix of supporters and opponents. Supporters included the Marana Chamber of Commerce, the school district superintendent, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the University of Arizona’s research leadership, the Arizona Technology Council, and numerous building trades members and local business owners. Opponents raised concerns including the indirect water footprint of generating the power needed to run the facility, the pace of new data center development regionally, questions about generator emissions and noise near the adjacent veterans cemetery, requests for a public referendum rather than a council vote, and broader questions about state-level tax incentive policy for data centers generally.
Council members and staff acknowledged these concerns as valid questions worth raising, while noting that the year-plus, proactive ordinance-drafting process the town had undertaken specifically to get ahead of these issues before any project was proposed.
Following discussion, both the Luckett Road North and Luckett Road South rezoning ordinances passed unanimously, 6-0, with one council member (a property owner on the south parcel) recused from the vote entirely.