Mississippi
Two things about Mississippi are worth a landowner's attention and they pull in opposite directions. The first is that the largest projects have already chosen their ground, in Madison County, in Clinton, and near Vicksburg. The second is that Mississippi's certified data center exemption requires only twenty million dollars of investment and twenty jobs, which is the lowest threshold of any state we work in. Kansas asks 250 million. Kentucky's longest term needs 450 million. A twenty million dollar project is a building, not a campus, and it can sit on ground that would never interest a hyperscaler. Tell us your county, roughly your acreage, and which utility bills you. We look at the public record for free and tell you what we find, including when the answer is that your ground does not work.
This is the first thing every landowner asks and it deserves a real answer rather than a deflection. No per acre number appears on this page for Mississippi. In a state where the difference between good ground and unusable ground is often a matter of two feet of elevation and how the water leaves, a figure named before anybody has looked would mislead you. What can be stated plainly is which characteristics move it.
Flat land is not scarce in Mississippi. Flat land that drains, sits out of the floodplain, and holds a foundation without extraordinary work is a much shorter list. That distinction does far more to set value here than total acreage does.
Ground within reach of high voltage capacity is a different asset to ground that is not, and the deed says nothing about which one you own. This is usually the first thing that separates two neighbouring farms that otherwise look identical.
Land close to what has already been announced in central Mississippi draws more attention, which raises interest and also raises what everyone involved expects. It does not automatically make your ground more useful, because the electrical capacity in an area is finite and some of it is now spoken for.
An option pays you for exclusivity while a project works out whether it can actually build, and you generally keep farming through it. A sale is final. Read carefully what any option says about what happens if the project does not proceed, and have a Mississippi attorney read it too.
An option period commonly runs a year or more and the ground almost always stays in row crop or pasture through it. Survey crews and soil borings turn up occasionally and work around what you have going.
Cooling needs water, and in a state with active conversation about aquifer levels and Delta irrigation that is not a small point. The larger projects here have made public commitments about it. Whether a project near you does the same is a fair thing to ask before you agree to anything.
Large low buildings, a substation, security fencing, and lighting through the night. There is no softer way to describe it. Quieter than a highway and a great deal busier than a soybean field.
Permitting happens locally, which means the people considering it are people you know and see. That is worth thinking about at the beginning rather than discovering partway through.
Because it sets who can qualify. In most states a project has to be very large before the tax treatment applies, which means only a handful of companies are ever looking. Mississippi lowered its bar in 2019, so a single building on a modest parcel can qualify. That does not guarantee anybody wants your ground. It does mean more parties are able to look.
Not necessarily, and the honest answer has two halves. The largest hyperscale campuses in central Mississippi have chosen their ground, and capacity in that immediate area is now partly claimed. At the same time, smaller projects follow large ones, and the state threshold is written low enough to catch them.
Because Mississippi has three separate systems. If you are in the northeast you are almost certainly on TVA power through a local distributor. Central and west is Entergy Mississippi. Southeast is Mississippi Power. Many rural landowners are served by an electric power association drawing from one of those. The name on your bill tells us which process would apply to your ground.
Frequently, and we would rather say so than let you hope otherwise. Level ground is common in Mississippi and level ground that drains properly and sits clear of the floodplain is much less common. That is the single most useful thing to establish about a Mississippi parcel, and it is often answerable from public mapping before anybody drives out.
It is a fair question and a live one in this state. Cooling uses water, and how much depends heavily on the design. The large projects here have made public commitments on the subject. If somebody approaches you about your ground, asking what their water plan is will tell you quickly whether they have done real work.
Ask two Mississippi-specific questions first: which utility would serve the site, and whether they have talked to that utility about capacity in your area. Anyone who has done real work answers both without hesitating. Anyone who cannot has not looked at your ground in any meaningful way. Then take the letter to a Mississippi attorney, and sign nothing in the meantime, including anything from us.
Often nothing at all. Many arrangements involve part of a property while the remainder carries on as it was. Raise it in the first conversation instead of assuming either way, and we would much rather you did.
Mississippi is divided among three quite different power systems and the one you sit in shapes everything that follows. The northeastern counties buy TVA power through municipal systems and electric power associations, so a large new load there is answered by TVA and your local distributor together. Central and western Mississippi is Entergy Mississippi territory, which is where the largest committed projects have landed. The southeast is Mississippi Power. Alongside all of that, roughly two dozen electric power associations serve about half the meters in the state and cover most of the rural land area, drawing wholesale power from Cooperative Energy or from TVA. When you tell us who bills you, that genuinely narrows the question.
Mississippi certifies qualifying data center enterprises through the Mississippi Development Authority, and certification carries exemptions from sales and use tax on computing equipment, software, and construction materials, along with income and franchise tax relief. The threshold is the point worth understanding. The programme originally asked for fifty million dollars of investment and fifty jobs at 150 percent of the state average wage. In 2019 the legislature lowered it to twenty million dollars, twenty jobs, and 125 percent of the state average wage. That is the lowest qualifying bar of any state in this network, set against 250 million in Kansas, 200 million in Texas and Iowa, and 100 million in Tennessee. A project at that size is one building rather than a campus, and it can work on ground that a hyperscaler would never consider. Separately, very large projects have been negotiated individually. Amazon Web Services announced ten billion dollars in Madison County in January 2024 with a state package that included a long-running tax exemption and a rebate on construction materials, tied to job creation and investment commitments. It has since announced further investment in central Mississippi and a project near Vicksburg. Those arrangements were approved separately from the standard certification and are not what a smaller project would receive. None of this money reaches you. It matters because the low standing threshold widens the field of parties who could approach a Mississippi landowner, and because the large individually negotiated projects have already claimed a share of the electrical capacity in the middle of the state.
Programs change. Confirm anything that matters to your decision with your own advisor before acting on it.
Where the largest committed investment in the state has landed, inside Entergy Mississippi territory. Attention here is high and so is competition for the electrical capacity that remains.
River access, existing industry, and a further announced project. Ground here is being looked at more closely than it was two years ago.
Tupelo, Starkville, Columbus, and the surrounding country buy TVA power through local distributors. Land is generally less expensive and the process for answering a capacity question is different from the rest of the state.
Northwest Mississippi sits against a major metropolitan area with real infrastructure while remaining Mississippi ground for tax purposes, which is a combination that gets noticed.
Very flat, very large tracts, and genuine drainage and soil questions. Some of it works and a good deal of it does not, and telling the difference requires looking rather than assuming.
Mississippi Power territory with industrial history along the coast and timber country inland. A different utility and a different set of county expectations from the rest of the state.