Zoning and tenant demand no longer guarantee a data center in Texas. Power allocation is the gating item.
Skybox Datacenters won rezoning for a 140-acre site in Hutto, developed with Prologis, with land closing planned for February 2027. Power capacity approval is delayed until 2028 under the governor's ERCOT interconnection freeze, per CRE Daily.
The site could be used for industrial space instead, which would use roughly half the land (about 70 acres, derived). ERCOT's queue holds more than 474 GW, about 90% data center requests.
Implications
Underwrite the land twice: as a data center with a power date, and as industrial on a smaller footprint. Require interconnection contingencies on data center land purchases. Power approval lands at least a year after the planned closing (derived).
Flags: Single source for the 2028 date. Megawatts, investment and land price not disclosed. Acreage differs across trade reports. Derived figures are CRE360 calculations.
Related coverage
Key Takeaways
- In Texas data centers the entitlement is the easy part; the power date is the asset
- The same land carries a data center price and a smaller industrial price
- Require power contingencies before negotiating a discount
CRE Daily, Skybox Wins Hutto Rezoning, but Data Center Power Is Unclear, Oct. 6, 2026 · Troutman Pepper Locke, Texas Hits Pause on Data Center Grid Connections Amid Growing Oversight Push, Aug. 2026
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