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Escambia To Consider Data Center Ban; FloridaWest Says No Active Talks
June 18, 2026
Escambia County will soon consider an ordinance to ban data centers in the county.
“FloridaWest has never been in active negotiations to build a data center.”
That’s what Chris Platé, CEO of FloridaWest, told the Escambia County Commission on Wednesday night. FloridaWest is the economic development agency for Escambia County.
“That phrase was not mine; it was the media,” he said. “There is no proposal, no incentive commitment, and no pending public action before this board, PEDC (the Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission), or FloridaWest.”
He said the reports by Pensacola media that FloridaWest was in active negotiations with a company looking to build a data center were simply not correct.
Platé said it’s the job and purpose of FloridaWest to field inquiries about economic development in Escambia County, and there have been a “handful” of previous data center inquiries that have not moved forwardt. In addition, he said, local resources are limited for data centers.
“FloridaWest does not pursue any standalone or hyperscale data centers,” he said. “They are not on our target list and our regional power capacity cannot support one to begin with.”
“The large scale box that some people are picturing in their mind is not coming here,” Platé (pictured top) added with great emphasis.
“So again, just to make it clear for everybody, we are not in active negotiations with any data center, and that is not an active target for us. We would rather use the resources that they are claiming that a data center would use, for the targeted industries that we have,” Platé concluded.
Dozens of people spoke out against data centers at Wednesday night’s meeting, fueled by online information and rumors that a data center was headed for North Escambia — particularly Century or The Bluffs, a 6,000-acre site in Cantonment generally bordered by Becks Lake Road near International Paper to the north, and the University of West Florida to the south.
Platé repeatedly denied that there are any active data center negotiations. NorthEscambia.com recently sat down with Century Mayor Ben Boutwell and Town Manager Dave Murzin, who both said they had no knowledge of any data center eyeing Century.
On July 23, the county commission will vote to schedule a public hearing on an ordinance to be considered at the August 6 meeting. That ordinance, as recommended by County Attorney Alison Rogers, would not be a data center moratorium but would be an outright ban.
Rogers told NorthEscambia.com Wednesday night that the ordinance could be written to ban data centers only in the unincorporated areas — not in Century or Pensacola, giving the two municipalities an opportunity to decide their own data center future.
“The incorporated areas can do something different,” the county attorney said by text. “We can make ours only the unincorporated area.” The exact language of the ordinance must be approved by the commission.
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