GridSight Local Sentiment Index

Palm Coast, FL: the DC BLOX cable landing station

DC BLOX Cable Landing Station: Town Center, Flagler County

Legal entity

Reported as "DCB Orchid" / "DC Orchid": registered Florida entity name and document number not established

Developer / operator

DC BLOX, Inc. (Atlanta, GA). Google is the anchor cable partner and customer, not an owner

Location

Town Center, west of Town Center Boulevard, City of Palm Coast; cable landing on South 6th Street, City of Flagler Beach: two separate municipalities, two separate approval tracks

Site size

34 acres purchased; ~7-acre permitted building site. DC BLOX publishes 25 acres. Four figures are in circulation and are reported, not averaged

Planned capacity

10 MW (city: "less than 10 MW when fully operational"). A 2024 Flagler Beach Q&A said "less than 15MW"

Project status

Approved building: one structure, 33,760 sq ft. Development Order issued administratively 10/21/2025; building permit 4/8/2026; construction started 3/2026; target operational Q1 2027. A second, larger campus facility is signalled for construction start end-2026 with size, water and power undisclosed.

Announced investment

$100M+ per DC BLOX's outreach page; $50M per DC BLOX's own VP on air, 6/19/2026. The discrepancy is on the record and unresolved

Serving utility

Florida Power & Light, a DC BLOX-FPL service agreement document was not located

Key investors

Post Road Group; Bain Capital Credit; a BlackRock subsidiary

All company-level. No project-specific financing for Palm Coast has been disclosed. DC BLOX's $1.15B green loan is earmarked for its Atlanta campus, not this site.

Coordinates

Not established

— score pending
Phase 1 complete

Public record established : digital channel pending

The public-record half of this market has been researched and is shown below. No composite score is published yet: the digital channel (Reddit threads and keyword volume) accounts for 35% of every category score, and publishing a number without it would misrepresent how much of the rubric has actually been run. The score appears here once those two inputs land.

Concern categories

Public-record evidence established for each category. Digital intensity and final scores pending Phase 2-3 inputs.

Data disclosure

Phase 1 only. The public record below is complete as of 3 September 2026. No composite score is published because the digital channel (Reddit thread analysis and Google Keyword Planner volume, 35% of every category score) has not been run. Public-record intensity is stated per category so the shape of the market is visible now; the number follows once those two pulls land.

▶Zoning / ProcessPENDING

The dominant frame, and structural. The Development Order was issued administratively on 10/21/2025 with no Planning Board and no Council vote, the building kept under the 40,000 sq ft threshold that would have triggered one. Records released 2/27/2026 made the sequence public. The city responded on 6/10/2026 by unanimously directing land development code language that prohibits data centers by right in every district, confines them to industrial zoning, requires a 4-of-5 supermajority, and explicitly defines cable landing stations as data centers. Flagler County adopted a one-year moratorium on 8/3/2026, amended to cover facilities of all sizes. Senior Planner Michael Hanson: 'The city currently does not permit data centers. The code is silent on it.' Held below 90 because the county moratorium is preemptive: no data centers are planned in unincorporated Flagler, and the CLS itself is exempt from it.

Public-record intensity 82 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 22 evidence items

▶NDAs / SecrecyPENDING

Project ran under the code names 'Project Orchid' and later 'Parakeet Gumbo'. Palm Coast classified it as a 'state-qualified economic development project we are required to keep confidential' and withheld the conceptual plan. County officials were reported to have 'panicked' when disclosure loomed in April 2024. The incentive package negotiated by city and county remains undisclosed as to amount, duration and clawback terms: 'We don't know how much. We don't know for how long.' The resident petition launched 7/18/2026 is titled 'Demand Transparency'. Florida's SB 484, effective 7/1/2026, now requires development agreements to be disclosed once the confidentiality period lapses, which makes this the single highest-value records target in the market.

Public-record intensity 78 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 16 evidence items

▶Disclosure accuracyPENDING

PROVISIONAL: this is the candidate eleventh core category, pending sign-off, and Palm Coast is the second market to evidence it independently. On 6/19/2026 DC BLOX's VP of Marketing said on WNZF that the campus was 'about 100,000 square feet, so that's roughly the square footage of a typical Home Depot' across two buildings, and cited $50 million. The city rebutted the same night: 'The approved DC Blox project is a single 33,760-square-foot facility. No second building has been approved by the City.' DC BLOX walked it back on 7/4. Three separate descriptions of the cooling system are on the record: closed-loop water, 'recycled refrigerant', and 'no water requirements for cooling', and the company's own outreach page still published 100,000 sq ft, two buildings and 25 acres as of this build. This is not a secrecy complaint; it is a category error about what the developer says when it does speak, and it behaves differently from NDAs / Secrecy.

Public-record intensity 80 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 11 evidence items

▶Electricity / Grid Rate ImpactPENDING

Live but not yet acted on. The facility is expected to become Palm Coast's largest single private electricity consumer. FPL sought base-rate increases of $1.55B for 2026 and $930M for 2027. A resident cited a $300/month bill against a $135 national average at the 5/19/2026 council meeting. Against that: DC BLOX states verbatim that 'Residents will not see higher utility bills because of our facility' and that no new power infrastructure is required, and at 10 MW the site sits below Florida's 50 MW large-load threshold, so the state framework requiring large-load customers to bear 100% of new generation cost probably does not bind here. No PSC docket tying this site to a tariff was located.

Public-record intensity 55 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 9 evidence items

▶Anti-corporate sentimentPENDING

Anchored in a specific local memory rather than in general hostility. Palm Coast Data took $400,000 from the city, $100,000 from the county and $3M from the state for 700 jobs that never materialized, and that precedent is invoked directly in coverage of this project. 'This was done stealthily.' The city's separate $17M Allete settlement in August 2026 hardened a broader 'Town Center deals go badly' narrative that this project is now read inside.

Public-record intensity 58 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 6 evidence items

▶WaterPENDING

Raised and formally responded to, but never independently verified. At the 5/19/2026 council meeting a resident invoked Lake Jackson near Tallahassee draining under aquifer stress. The 6/10/2026 code direction mandates closed-loop cooling, and SB 484 adds consumptive-use restrictions. Cutting the other way, the permitted service is a 2-inch domestic line and an 8-inch fire line, which is physically consistent with the low-use claim. No verified consumption figure exists in either direction, and the three conflicting cooling descriptions are the reason the claim cannot simply be accepted.

Public-record intensity 48 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 7 evidence items

▶Anti-AI sentimentPENDING

Live by contamination rather than by substance, and interesting for exactly that reason. Officials work hard to say this is not an AI facility. Councilman Ty Miller: 'The cable landing station here is kind of a different animal'. Yet regional headlines call it the 'Palm Coast AI Data Center', and a resident quoted by WUFT said 'Even though I know it's not AI, I don't trust it.' The frame is attaching regardless of the facts, which is a distinct finding from either anti-corporate feeling or process complaint.

Public-record intensity 35 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 4 evidence items

▶NoisePENDING

Raised, legislated against, never measured. A resident named noise at the 5/19/2026 meeting; the 6/10/2026 code direction includes noise protections; SB 484 and HB 1007 require noise studies for large facilities near homes or schools. Backup generators are tested about monthly. No complaint, decibel study or measurement exists, and generator count, fuel type and tank capacity are not established.

Public-record intensity 32 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 4 evidence items

▶Wildlife / LandPENDING

The real 2024 grievance was loss of public land, not habitat: Flagler Beach unanimously rejected a perpetual easement across Veterans Park in June 2024 because it would have rendered roughly a third of the park unusable, and the route moved to South 6th Street. Marine impact is addressed by horizontal directional drilling under Army Corps and FDEP oversight. Loss of green space appears in the petition. No listed-species or sea turtle issue surfaced.

Public-record intensity 25 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 4 evidence items

▶Schools / ChildrenPENDING

Structurally significant and entirely unmobilized. The most consequential gap in this market. Imagine School at Town Center sits immediately south of the site, and SB 484 / HB 1007 require noise studies for large-scale centers within five miles of a school. Despite that, no school board action, parent group or PTA statement was found anywhere in the record. This is a hook nobody has pulled, and whether it gets pulled is the single largest swing factor on this market's next score.

Public-record intensity 22 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 3 evidence items

▶Property ValuesPENDING

Thin and inferential. Present only via Sabal Preserve adjacency and the petition's nighttime-lighting and green-space language. No appraisal, realtor commentary or homeowner claim was found.

Public-record intensity 20 established · digital intensity awaiting Reddit and keyword inputs · 2 evidence items

Context flag : Cross-market spillover

INBOUND and unusually strong, with a direct company link that no other GridSight market has. Ormond Beach adopted an 18-month moratorium on 8/26/2026 and is pursuing an outright ban; Nassau County adopted one in June 2026; Palm Beach County rejected 'Project Tango' on 7/16/2026. More pointedly: on 8/11/2026 DC BLOX sued Metro Nashville in federal court over its data center moratorium, alleging a 'targeted attack against DC Blox' and asserting vested rights on a $23M property. That is the same developer, litigating against precisely the remedy Flagler County adopted three weeks later. Nashville is GridSight's lowest-scoring market at 26. A member evaluating Palm Coast should read the two together.

Context flag : Location / Disaster Risk

LATENT, NOT EXPRESSED: recorded here deliberately rather than scored. The physical exposure is real and documented: the cable landings sit in a beach town under declared erosion emergencies, and a $35M, 5.5-mile beach renourishment project is facing deadline delays. DC BLOX in fact sequenced construction to follow renourishment completion, which shows the developer accounted for it. But no source shows any resident or official raising hurricane, storm surge or sea level rise as an objection to this project. Scoring it as an active grievance would be inventing sentiment. It is flagged as the highest-potential unexpressed concern in the market.

No evidence found

Unknown, not absent. These concerns were searched for in this market and no supporting evidence was located.

HealthTrafficE-Waste

The economic case

Stated for this project

Investment

$100M+ (company page) vs $50M (company VP on air, 6/19/2026): unresolved

Permanent jobs

15 per city development-order records; 10-12 per WUFT. City called them 'modest in size' but 'well-paying, skilled'

Construction jobs

Not established: no figure appears anywhere in the record

Property tax

'Several hundred thousand dollars in annual property tax revenue': city economic development office estimate

Flagler Beach easements

$600,000 guaranteed up front, plus $200,000 to $250,000 per additional cable up to three; maximum roughly $1.35M; no recurring fees

Cable partner

Google 'Sol': Palm Coast to Bermuda, the Azores and Santander, Spain; site designed for up to six cables

Comparable reference points : not specific to this project

State sales tax

Florida narrowed its data center sales tax exemption to facilities of 100 MW or more in Aug 2025. At 10 MW this site does not qualify. The 'huge state tax break' claim is not supported

Franchise fee

Palm Coast has declined an electric franchise fee four times since 2011, so the city collects nothing from the facility's power consumption

Local precedent

Palm Coast Data received $400k city, $100k county and $3M state for 700 jobs that never arrived. The reference point residents actually use

State law

SB 484 signed 5/7/2026, effective 7/1/2026: ratepayer protection, local zoning authority expressly preserved including outright denial, and public disclosure of development agreements after the exemption period

Not disclosed

Incentive dollar value, term and performance clawbackAny development agreement documentVerified water consumption in gallons per dayVerified electricity consumption; any FPL service agreementConstruction-phase job countWage levels behind 'well-paying'Assessed value and actual property tax the site will generateThe second facility: size, MW, water, cost and jobs all undisclosedNoise modelling or any decibel studyRegistered Florida entity name, officers, parcel ID and street address