Auburndale Data Center Planned for 700 MW As Residents Get First Chance to Speak at City Workshop
Auburndale Data Center Plans Show 120 Megawatts As Residents Get First Chance to Speak at City Workshop
Auburndale residents will get their first chance to question the data center planned for 810 Pace Road at a City Commission workshop Tuesday evening, Nov. 10. The city has also said the data center will not be on the commission’s regular meeting agenda for Nov. 16. The Citrus Tea News laid out the timeline for the Auburndale Technology Center in it’s earlier report, How Auburndale Approved a Data Center Without Ever Saying It Out Loud.
Two warehouses changed numbers this summer, under a site plan sealed June 22 that required no public notice or hearing. Under the ordinance that approved the project in 2023, the two pairs of buildings carry different lists of permitted uses.
Exhibit B to Ordinance 1762 sets them out side by side. Buildings 1 and 2 are allowed research and development, light manufacturing, health technology, and financial institutions and/or information sciences. Buildings 3 and 4 are allowed e-commerce and logistics, distribution, industrial mixed use, research and development, light manufacturing, health technology, office space, and vocational institutions. Information sciences appears on the first list and not the second (see below).
The Citrus Tea News sent additional follow-up questions Monday evening, but had not received an answer from the city prior to publishing. We will update this article as we receive responses. The questions included: whether the permitted uses follow the building number or stay with the physical building, and which footprints the 2023 plan approved as Buildings 1 and 2.
Julie Preble, the community development director, approved the June change while acting as the city manager’s designee, under a provision that makes the manager the administrator of the land development regulations. Preble is listed on city agendas through July under her former name, Womble.
Sec. 6.1.1.13 of those regulations allows the Planning Commission or its duly authorized agent to permit minor changes to an approved final plan. It requires a petition from the original petitioner or a successor and a finding that the change accords with the regulations in force when the plan was approved. Action on a change that needs no amendment is administrative, and the section provides that public notice and a hearing are not required, though the commission may hold one if it chooses. No Planning Commission vote was required.
The director said the renumbering corrected the developer’s error. The project was approved in 2023 for four buildings. Preble says the developer built the two warehouses exactly as approved, but mislabeled them while permitting the shells in 2024 and 2025, and the city recognized the mistake. She said the uses were never the point.
The site plans, labeled “Project Sunshine,” the developer’s internal project name, officially reached the city Nov. 4, the same day Auburndale announced the project as the Auburndale Technology Center. Preble said that was the first time the city received documents identifying it as a data center. No permit has been issued. Nov. 4 was an application, she said. A 10-day comment period follows, then review against the Florida Building Code, the fire marshal code, and the city’s own regulations. Several rounds are possible before anything is approved.
The mechanical and electrical plan sets, obtained under Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, list the address as 810 Pace Road and designate the building as Building 1. The engineering firm Salas O’Brien sealed both plans on Sept. 21.
The mechanical set lists the ASHRAE energy standard for data centers and the national fire protection standard for information technology equipment among its applicable codes. It labels four suites at 24, 32, 32, and 32 megawatts, totaling 120 megawatts, and a note describes those loads as initial estimates to be finalized when a tenant fits out the space. Its ventilation table gives the room type for all four suites as computer room, each between 31,000 and 36,000 square feet. The electrical set refers to data halls 84 times.
Preble said Project Sunshine was the developer’s internal name, not the city’s, and that no non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) exist.
Preble said code names usually come with state incentive applications, and that this project is seeking no state or local incentives or tax breaks.
The electrical specification names Pace Road DC Development, LLC as the owner. Preble confirmed that the company is Hillwood, a Dallas-based company. Tampa Electric’s most recent annual report to the Florida Public Service Commission includes a construction line item listed as Pace Road Data Center.
She said the tenant will not be known until someone applies for a business license.
Drawings for the property dated May 2024 described each building as wired for 480 volts, the service used in ordinary commercial buildings. The September set describes switchgear built to accept 34.5 kilovolts, the higher voltage that runs on utility lines, 53 transformers to step that voltage down, 36 battery units rated 500 kilowatts each to carry equipment through an outage, and one 3-megawatt diesel generator. Neither document names a utility.
On water, the city’s public statement describes an application for potable water that the county health department approved. That is a drinking water approval and is separate from a consumptive use permit, which governs how much water a property may draw.
The Citrus Tea News asked whether a consumptive use permit exists for the site and for how many gallons a day; the city had not answered as of Monday night.
Preble said a data center fits the city’s research and development use, which appears on both building lists. If that reading holds, the building numbers would not change the site’s potential use.
The code defines that use, at Sec. 4.2.1.129, as one engaged in research and development, testing, assembly, repair, and manufacturing in listed industries that include communications and information technology, computer hardware and software, and high-technology industry.
The definition does not name data centers or data storage. The Citrus Tea News has asked for clarification on the city’s basis for reading a data center into that definition. The city’s overlay chapter separately names information sciences and engineering among five target industries for the Central Florida Innovation District, in a section headed vision and planning principles.
Tampa Electric’s role sits outside the city’s review. Polk County approved an expansion of the Pace Road substation and battery storage equipment on July 6, under record LDNON-2026-53 at 780 Pace Road, and the county still lists that project as requiring inspections. On Sept. 24, the utility told The Citrus Tea News it was no longer planning to expand the Pace Road substation. Twelve days later, on Oct. 6, the owner of 810 Pace Road granted Tampa Electric a perpetual easement for a substation and switchyard. Asked about the easement, spokesperson Cherie Jacobs repeated on Nov. 6 that the company has no such plan, and said she was not in a position to discuss individual private developments. Preble said what happens on private property between the utility and the developer is not under the city’s purview to review.
Preble explained that Auburndale’s land development code is about 30 years old and a rewrite is underway, but said the city will not adopt it until next year, after a 2025 state law expires. That law, Chapter 2025-190, bars municipalities in counties named in the Hurricane Debby, Helene and Milton disaster declarations from adopting more restrictive or burdensome land development regulations before Oct. 1, 2027. The state cited the same law in September 2025 when it voided Auburndale’s first attempt to update its comprehensive plan. Preble said that rejection concerned road classifications and had nothing to do with this site. The city adopted a revised comprehensive plan April 20.
The workshop begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Ariana Suite at the Lake Ariana Civic Center, 2220 Lake Ariana Blvd. Preble said staff, the developer and Tampa Electric will present, and the floor will then open to residents. No decisions will be made, and no public hearing will be held. The commission meets again in regular session Nov. 16, and the agenda has not been posted.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Auburndale data center approved? No, the city has not issued a building permit. The city received a site plan and a permit application on Nov. 4, 2026, and the community development director said review can take several rounds. The underlying project, four buildings at 810 Pace Road, was approved in 2023 under Ordinance 1762.
Can the public speak about the Auburndale data center?
Yes. The City Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, in the Ariana Suite at the Lake Ariana Civic Center, 2220 Lake Ariana Blvd. Staff, the developer, and Tampa Electric will present, and the floor will then open to residents, with no decisions made. The City has said the data center will not be on the commission’s regular meeting agenda on Nov. 16.
Why were the buildings at 810 Pace Road renumbered? The city said the developer mislabeled the buildings while permitting the shells in 2024 and 2025 and that the June 2026 site plan corrected the error. Ordinance 1762 attaches different permitted uses to Buildings 1 and 2 than to Buildings 3 and 4. The city has not said whether those uses follow the number, or the building.
How much power will the Auburndale data center use? The mechanical plans label four suites at 24, 32, 32, and 32 megawatts, totaling 120 megawatts. The electrical plans show a 34.5-kilovolt service, 53 transformers, 36 uninterruptible power supply units, and one 3-megawatt generator. No utility is named in either set.
How much water will the Auburndale data center use? The city’s statement describes an application for potable water approved by the county health department, which is a drinking water approval and separate from a consumptive use permit. Asked whether a consumptive use permit exists for the property, and for how many gallons a day, the city had not answered as of Monday night.
Sources: “How Auburndale Approved a Data Center Without Saying It Out Loud,” The Citrus Tea News, thecitrustea.com, Nov. 6, 2026; Ordinance 1762, Exhibit B, City of Auburndale, obtained through public records request, 2023; Civil site plan for 810 Pace Road, Salas O’Brien, obtained through public records request, June 22, 2026; Project Sunshine mechanical plan set, 810 Pace Road, Salas O’Brien, obtained through public records request, Sept. 21, 2026; Project Sunshine electrical plan set and Division 26 specification, 810 Pace Road, Salas O’Brien, obtained through public records request, Sept. 21, 2026; Building plans for 810 Pace Road, obtained through public records request, May 2024; Land Development Regulations, Chapter 4, Sec. 4.2.1.129, City of Auburndale, auburndalefl.com, undated; Land Development Regulations, Chapter 6, Sections 6.1.1.12 and 6.1.1.13, City of Auburndale, auburndalefl.com, undated; Land Development Regulations, Chapter 15, Sec. 15.604, City of Auburndale, auburndalefl.com, undated; Notice of Special Workshop, City of Auburndale, auburndalefl.com, undated; City Commission Meeting Agenda, City of Auburndale, auburndalefl.com, Nov. 2, 2026; Record LDNON-2026-53, Polk County Land Development Division, polkfl.gov, July 6, 2026; Annual Report to the Florida Public Service Commission, Tampa Electric Co., floridapsc.com, 2025; Chapter 2025-190, Laws of Florida, Section 28, Florida Legislature, 2025; Ordinance 1844, City of Auburndale, April 20, 2026; Statement on the Auburndale Technology Center, City of Auburndale, undated; Julie Preble, community development director, City of Auburndale, interview, Nov. 9, 2026; Cherie Jacobs, media spokesperson, Tampa Electric, written statements, Sept. 24 and Nov. 6, 2026
