Conway, Arkansas – A standing-room-only crowd filled a Conway city meeting Tuesday night as residents pressed local leaders for answers about a proposed billion-dollar artificial intelligence data center planned near the Lollie Road area, a project that has quickly become one of the most debated developments in the region.
The meeting in Conway drew so many attendees that officials capped entry at 80 people inside the council chambers. Others waited outside as discussions unfolded, highlighting the level of community concern surrounding the proposal and its potential impact on infrastructure, taxes, and transparency.
At the center of the debate is a proposed roughly 300,000-square-foot AI data center campus tied to an unnamed Fortune 100 company. The site sits on recently rezoned land designated for heavy industrial use and would require significant electricity and cooling capacity, raising questions about how local utilities would manage the demand.
For many neighbors, the issue is not abstract. It is personal and close to home.
“It has now been over a year since I stood at this podium asking questions about this project,” resident Jeremy Rice said during the meeting. “To this day I still do not have real answers.”
Rice said he lives about 500 feet from the proposed development site and has been raising concerns for years about what the project could mean for daily life in the surrounding area. He expressed frustration that, despite ongoing discussions, key details about the project still remain unclear to the public.
“But somehow we are still not far enough along to provide residents with basic information,” Rice said.
Others in attendance echoed similar concerns, particularly about how the project has been communicated to the public and whether residents will have a meaningful voice before decisions are finalized.
A major point of contention during the meeting was a proposed memorandum of understanding tied to the project. Under the agreement, the unnamed company would receive a 65% tax break over a 30-year period.
In exchange, the city would see what officials describe as significant private investment, along with an estimated 50 permanent jobs once the facility is operational.
That trade-off prompted skepticism from some residents who questioned whether the long-term benefits justify the scale of public incentives being considered.
“What are we getting for this? How are we benefiting from this?” asked Leia Morshedi with the Conway First Advisory Group. “Because it doesn’t look like we’re benefiting very much as it stands.”
Concerns centered not only on job creation numbers but also on whether the tax structure would provide enough return for the community, especially given the expected strain on infrastructure systems.
Conway Mayor Bart Castleberry addressed the concerns directly, emphasizing that the proposal is still in its early stages and not yet a finalized development agreement.
“Like all major economic development projects this early in the development process, this project is still speculative,” Castleberry said. “Economic conditions, the availability of power, etc. could cause the project to be delayed indefinitely.”
City officials stressed that no final approvals have been made and that the project remains subject to multiple layers of review, including utility capacity assessments and planning evaluations.
One of the biggest unanswered questions involves whether local infrastructure can support a facility of this scale.
Conway Corp, the city’s municipal utility provider, is currently evaluating whether it can supply the required electricity and water demand needed to operate a large AI data center. Officials say those assessments are ongoing and will play a key role in determining whether the project can move forward.
The utility has also outlined preliminary plans for water usage, stating that treated wastewater—not drinking water—would be used for cooling systems at the facility if it is built. That detail was intended to ease concerns about residential water supply, though questions remain about overall system capacity.
Even with those assurances, residents continued to raise concerns about the long-term strain on energy infrastructure, particularly given the rapid growth of data center development across the country.
City officials reiterated throughout the meeting that the proposed AI data center is still in the design phase and has not yet reached final approval stages. Planning, zoning, utility coordination, and financial agreements are still under review.
The scale of the project, combined with its potential economic impact and infrastructure demands, has made it a focal point for community debate in Conway. Supporters highlight potential investment and job creation, while critics question transparency, incentives, and long-term effects on local resources.
As the meeting concluded, no final decisions were made, but the level of public engagement made one thing clear: the conversation around the proposed AI data center near Lollie Road is far from over.
