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On Monday, the Troup County School Board discussed a potential Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for tax abatement that could bring a multi-billion dollar tech center to LaGrange.

LaGrange Development Authority President Scott Malone presented the MOU between the LDA and Rosewall Pines Holdings that would provide tax incentives in the form of payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT).

Malone said the project, which will be executed in five phases, will bring a technology center to the former Jindal Films plant in LaGrange. The project is expected to bring substantial capital investment and job creation to the community.

Malone said Jindal’s leaving was a blessing in disguise, and the new business is a substantial upgrade.

“Jindal was not a great partner in the community and ultimately folded up shop last year. That was the biggest blessing we could have ever asked for. Normally, you don’t want a company to fold their operations, but unfortunately, they didn’t support a lot of the work that needed to be done to be successful. They didn’t leave Troup County. They left the industry and took their toys back to India,” Malone said.

Jindal’s exit made their former campus available, which Malone said was ripe for projects with high capital investment and one that had the qualities they were looking for: high-paying jobs and high-utility users. Malone explained that the City of LaGrange funds its operations by the sale of utilities.

“We’re not interested in another manufacturing product on this campus. This campus we knew was the most valuable in the county, and the biggest part of that was power that’s available to the site,” Malone said.

The project, now only known as Project Pegasus, is a technology campus that has a data center component. 

“Everybody that has a phone on their hip … so every single one of you, are using [data centers] every day. That’s the world that we’ve evolved into,” Malone said.

Malone said they turned down three manufacturing projects before Project Pegasus came to them. It was a $500 million project at the time in February, but when they learned the site would be able to get upwards of 400 megawatts of power, it grew substantially. Now, it’s around $8 billion, he said.

The investment is expected to bring 100-plus jobs that are all over $100,000 a year.

“We couldn’t have a better partner. I think you’ll find that there’s not a greater project, a transformational project, that we could have in the history of this county. It will be one of them, certainly the largest in Troup County and one of the largest in the history of the state,” Malone said.

Malone said they plan to close on the project in May, but he can’t say what company it is yet.

“I will share with you that it’s one of the 10 largest companies in the world. It’s not Rosewall Pines. They’re the operating companies that they operate behind, but you’ll know rather shortly, you know who the company is. We couldn’t have a better partner in it,” Malone said.