Austin Business Journal writes, "A Dallas-based developer is proposing to turn a 220-acre parcel directly northeast of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s rising factory in Taylor into a data center campus.
KDC will be considered by the Taylor Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 12 for an employment center plan for the site at 1051 County Road 401 for what it's calling "Project Comal." Details are minimal, but it would have primary data center uses along with a small lot of space for commercial, civic and other uses, according to city documents.
KDC representatives declined to comment.
In 2024, KDC struck an agreement with the owner of the land to market and develop initially 150 acres at the site with build-to-suit opportunities. That land was owned by Austin-based Prophet Capital Management Ltd. but documents indicate the data center plan also includes property owned by Plano-based CM Realty LLC. It has been marketed under the moniker of Taylor HQ.
Bill Guthrey, KDC's senior vice president of land development, previously told the Austin Business Journal that the company liked the site because of Samsung’s already-established infrastructure. He also credited city officials for working to annex the property.
The development "can be anything from industrial manufacturing to office to a data center," he said in June 2024. “There's going to be a very wide range of potential uses on this site, and we’re not going to be pigeonholed and just be able to do a specific type of development."
KDC has plenty of experience developing large-scale projects for big-name corporate users. The company boasts of having developed more than 150 build-to-suit office and industrial projects totaling more than 37 million square feet. Completed projects include work for Toyota, AAA, State Farm, Raytheon, PepsiCo, NBC Universal, the FBI and Baylor Scott & White Health, according to its online portfolio.
Documents indicate that architecture firm Page and engineering firm Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. are also involved with the project.
Taylor, located about 35 miles northeast of Austin with a population of around 17,000, is becoming a hub for the world's biggest companies that want to locate near Samsung. That includes Tesla Inc., which has signed on as a supplier at the site and also leases real estate, as well as global companies like electronics manufacturer Compal Electronics Inc.
But it's also attracting data centers, as are many of the cities surrounding Austin. Commonly referred to as "the cloud," data centers are hubs for computer processing power used by many companies and industries. They add value to tax rolls because of the large amount of investment at the sites. However, the U.S. data center boom has drawn criticism based on a variety of factors, such as the amount of power and water the facilities use.
The ABJ has identified nearly 25 data center projects in the Austin area in recent years, which are expected to include at least $25 billion in capital investment — likely an undercount — spread across millions of square feet of building space, along with thousands of jobs, primarily in construction. Developers have particularly focused on the area north of Austin, because it's under the purview of transmission company Oncor Electric Delivery Co., while also having access to available land and more support from local governments.
Taylor has another $1 billion project from Austin-based Blueprint Projects in the works. That project advanced with strong support from the city, including financial incentives, despite substantial pushback from area residents, who lost a legal challenge to stop it."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Justin Sayers
Published: November 10, 2025
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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