A Pinal County land use panel has given the proposed La Osa data center campus its first big green light, nudging a Vermaland plan to transform more than 3,000 acres of desert south of Eloy into a cloud and AI infrastructure hub. If the project is built as pitched, it would stitch together rows of data halls, on-site power generation and preserved open space across a wide stretch of rural land. The committee's vote does not send bulldozers rolling yet, but it does push the project into the rezoning and site-plan reviews it still needs before any construction can begin.
As reported by Phoenix Business Journal, Vermaland is seeking approvals for as many as 59 data-center buildings on the property, and the Pinal County land-use committee's recommendation advances the plan to the next permitting stages. The outlet notes that the developer is pitching La Osa as a single, phased campus that buyers or tenants could occupy in chunks, carving out parcels across the larger property as demand arrives.
Project footprint and power plan
The La Osa filing covers about 3,374 acres in total, with roughly 1,900 acres set aside for employment uses and nearly 983 acres reserved as open space, according to county planning records summarized by Pinal Post. Industry coverage and the developer say the campus would feature on-site gas-fired power generation along with room for battery storage, targeting up to around 3 gigawatts of capacity for both the data center and nearby grid customers, per AZBEX. Vermaland's filings describe a phased buildout in which infrastructure and power roll out in stages as individual buildings are developed.
Local reaction and environmental concerns
During public hearings, commissioners and nearby landowners pressed the developer on flood risk, groundwater use and wildlife impacts, while conservation advocates have called for tougher rules on large industrial water users in the Sonoran Desert. Court Rich, representing Vermaland, told Pinal Post that "the developer is committed to using what they call air-cooled or closed-loop cooling systems," a design choice meant to tamp down water demand. Critics counter that the site sits in a high-risk flood zone and argue that detailed drainage and environmental studies will be critical before any permits are issued, a set of risks local advocacy groups have been cataloging in recent updates.
What's next
The county still has to move through a comprehensive plan amendment and rezoning, and Vermaland must secure county sign-offs on drainage, flood mitigation, road improvements and other engineering work before site plans can win approval, according to Pinal County materials. The project's comprehensive plan packet lays out the sequence of approvals and notes that each phase would trigger additional studies and permits from county engineers and state agencies; those documents are on file with Pinal County. Public hearings and technical reviews will decide whether the committee's early nod ultimately turns into full entitlements.
Economic pitch and outlook
Vermaland and its representatives say La Osa would bring substantial equipment investment and long-term tax revenue to the county, along with a wave of construction jobs and a smaller number of permanent positions, given that data halls are not heavy employers once they are up and running. The developer has not announced any tenants so far, and industry analysts flag transmission upgrades, interconnection capacity, water availability and the permitting gauntlet as the biggest practical obstacles before hyperscale operators are likely to sign on, according to reporting by DataCenterDynamics. With the committee's recommendation in hand, attention now shifts to the Board of Supervisors and a long list of technical reviews that will determine whether La Osa remains a paper campus or turns into steel and servers rising out of the desert south of Eloy.
