The Lake Austin Collective as well as some nearby neighbors of the former 3M site continue to have questions about what will be built at 6801 River Place Blvd. The group shared an email to subscribers with their latest findings on documents that refer to a  “newly constructed data center” and that the project has been reported to have approximately 70 mega watt of total power capacity.

August 28, 2026 Hello Friends, An earlier photo of the former 3M campus at RM 2222 and River Place Boulevard. The parking garage has now been removed. WORLD CLASS CAPITAL GROUP by Lynette Haaland of the Four Points News Recent reporting about the redevelopment of the former 3M campus at 6801 River Place Boulevard raises an important question for surrounding neighborhoods: What exactly is being built there? In April, Four Points News reported that SB Energy had said the project “will not be a large-scale data center, it is an R&D lab.” More recently, on August 25, 2026, Four Points News reported that SB Energy continued to describe the property as an R&D center and said the site is permitted as office and laboratory space. [1] At the same time, financial-market documents describe the project very differently. Texas law provides one useful point of reference. Texas Tax Code §151.359 contains a statutory definition of a “data center” for purposes of that tax law. Among other requirements, the definition addresses facilities of at least 100,000 square feet used primarily to house servers and related equipment for processing, storage, and distribution of data, together with specified backup power, fire-protection, and security systems. [2] This tax-law definition does show that Texas law looks to the actual characteristics and primary use of a facility—not simply the label attached to it. Now compare SB Energy’s public description with the way the project has been described in the financing markets. In a May 28, 2026 credit-rating report, Fitch Ratings described the property as a “newly constructed data center with a total critical IT load of 50 MW.” The financing involves approximately $999 million in senior secured notes, and the project has been reported as having approximately 70 MW of total power capacity, with Graphcore, a SoftBank company, as the tenant. [3] That is significant computing infrastructure. To put the scale in perspective, River Place has approximately 1,100 homes. [4] ERCOT has used a rule of thumb that one megawatt of electricity can serve approximately 200 to 250 residential customers during peak conditions. Using that comparison: • A 50-MW critical IT load corresponds to the peak electricity demand of approximately 10,000 to 12,500 homes. • A 70-MW total power capacity corresponds to approximately 14,000 to 17,500 homes. These figures are comparisons of electrical load or capacity. They do not mean that the facility will necessarily consume 50 or 70 MW continuously. [5] But they do illustrate the scale of the infrastructure being developed at this site. The public record therefore contains two notably different descriptions of the same project. SB Energy has described the property to the community as an R&D center with office and laboratory space. Major financial-market sources have described the financed project as a data center with a 50-MW critical IT load and substantial electrical infrastructure. Those descriptions may not necessarily be legally incompatible. An advanced computing facility could potentially contain both research-and-development activities and significant data-processing infrastructure. But the difference matters. We do not know why these descriptions differ, and we are not suggesting wrongdoing. What we do believe is that residents, nearby neighborhoods, and City officials deserve a clear explanation of exactly what operations will take place at 6801 River Place Boulevard and how those operations fit within the site’s existing R&D zoning and permitted uses. We had hoped to discuss these questions with SoftBank at a scheduled meeting, but its representatives did not attend. Some basic questions deserve clear answers: ● What portion of the facility and compute will actually be devoted to research and development? ● What is the purpose of the reported 70 MW of total power capacity? ● Will the facility operate in a manner substantially similar to what is commonly understood to be a data center? ● And, most importantly for the surrounding community, what effects could a facility of this scale have on surrounding neighborhoods, including continuous noise, water demand, lighting, environmental impacts, electric-grid demand, and electricity costs? These are reasonable questions about a major project being developed next to established residential neighborhoods. We will continue reviewing the public records and sharing information as we learn more. If you have relevant information or documents concerning the project, please reach out. P.S–Austin City Council Discussion of Data Centers For additional background, the City of Austin’s recent discussion is available at the link below. Council discussion begins at 3:42, City Council at 3:51 and DSD and Austin Energy at 3:56 mentions the data center concern at this 3M property. Focus on 3:51 to 4:10 https://austintx.new.swagit.com/videos/399350 All the best, Linda Bailey, Eowyn Gorman and Linda Bailey, Eowyn Gorman, Jennifer Oeltjen Residents of Glenlake, Westminster Glen, Grandview Hills and surrounding communities and Lake Austin Collective www.lakeaustincollective.org