Right Now, Century Is The Only Place In Escambia County Where A Data Center Could Be Located

July 26, 2026

Right now, there is only one place in Escambia County where a data center could feasibly be located.

Thursday, the Escambia County Commission voted unanimously for a resolution to ban data centers in the unincorporated area of Escambia County, and it will back it up with an ordinance at a meeting in August.

The City of Pensacola previously approved a one-year moratorium on large-scale or large-load data centers in the city limits. While the moratorium applies to large-scale data centers with greater than a 50-megawatt load, the city attorney says he does not think anything below 50 megawatts would be allowed, according to Rick’s Blog.

That, at least for the next year, effectively bans data centers in unincorporated Escambia County and in the City of Pensacola. Escambia County has two incorporated municipalities — Pensacola and Century.

And Century has not issued a ban or moratorium on data centers of any size, and apparently will not in the near future.

But that does not mean that Century is open for data center business; town infrastructure simply can’t support it, according to Mayor Ben Boutwell.

“The Town of Century cannot support the infrastructure for a data center,” Boutwell told NorthEscambia.com on Friday afternoon. “Where am I going to put it? Where’s the infrastructure? I have two water wells that are down now.”

Century only has three water wells. There are two that can support the town’s needs, but the well on Academy Street is down until it returns to service after completion of an ongoing rehabilitation project. The third well is located at the Century Correctional Institution and is designed to primarily provide water to the prison. That prison well is also out of service, and water has been supplied to the prison by the Town of Century using a temporary interconnect to rural provider Central Water Works over six years. That interconnect started on an emergency basis with fire hoses across Tedder Road and was later upgraded to in-ground piping.

“We simply don’t have water capacity for a data center,” the mayor said.

Both Boutwell and Town Manager Dave Murzin stressed that no one has contacted the Town of Century about potentially locating a data center in the town limits.

“We are monitoring the situation closely,” Murzin said. “If they did, we would work with the FloridaWest Economic Development Alliance to define the parameters. I’m not an economic development expert, and the mayor is not an economic development expert. We would look toward people that are.”

As the county finalizes a firm ordinance legally banning data centers, Boutwell said he sees that Century’s path forward on data centers is clear.

“It’s kind of obvious,” he said. “We would follow the county.”

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES