The signed agreement

Short answer

There is a signed contract. On July 1, 2026 the Americus-Sumter Payroll Development Authority and Liberty GA USA LLC executed an Economic Development Agreement covering a four-phase data center campus on about 102 acres on Swett Avenue, tax parcel 64-17. The full scanned document is mirrored here: Economic Development Agreement, PDA and Liberty GA USA LLC (11 pages, PDF).

Everything below is a reading of that document, with the paragraph numbers so any statement can be checked against the page. This desk has not compared its copy against the Authority's own file copy; anyone can request that under the Open Records Act.

What the agreement settles

Much of what this report has listed as unknown is now on paper.

The survey behind Exhibit A was prepared by D. Scott Langford, Georgia Registered Surveyor No. 3172, surveyed May 27, 2026 and recorded in Plat Book F, Page 316. The tract is bounded by the former Seaboard Coastline Railroad right of way, the Swett Avenue Extension, and the centerline of Willets Branch — a running stream on the property line.

The operating conditions

These are the clauses a resident will care about most, and they are real commitments rather than talking points.

• No private wells, no private sewer. Liberty "shall not construct or utilize water wells" and shall not build its own sanitary sewer. It must apply to the City of Americus for water and sewer service. §5(C)
• No open-loop cooling. Closed-loop cooling or other technologies "designed to minimize water consumption" are required; open-loop and once-through systems are prohibited. §11
• Generators for emergencies only. Routine testing is limited to 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and backup generators "shall be used only in emergency situations." §10
• Noise measured at the property line, using industry-standard meters, against federal, state, EPD and City of Americus limits. If a governmental entity finds an exceedance, the operator must take corrective measures. §9
• Lighting shielded and directed downward to limit glare and spillover onto adjacent property. §12
• Battery storage must meet fire and building codes including NFPA standards, be coordinated with the local fire department, and be identified on submitted site plans. §13
• The city keeps its enforcement powers. The agreement recites seventeen subject matters — sound, nuisance, vibration, buffers, outdoor lighting, zoning, environmental and natural resources among them — over which the City of Americus has non-exclusive jurisdiction to enforce its ordinances. §5(B)
• Infrastructure is Liberty's cost. Approval does not obligate the Authority or the city to build, extend, or upgrade infrastructure; road and utility improvements needed to serve the facility are Liberty's responsibility unless the city decides otherwise. §14

What the agreement still does not answer

A commitment to a standard is not a number. None of the following appears anywhere in the document:

• IT load or total meter load, in megawatts, at any phase
• Water demand — average day, peak day, or annual — or a water balance
• The specific cooling equipment. "Closed-loop" describes the circuit, not the water use; closed-circuit coolers can still be evaporative, so §11 does not by itself cap consumption
• Generator count, size, fuel, emission controls, or an annual hour limit. "Emergency situations" is not defined, and testing hours are limited without a cap on testing days
• A decibel figure. §9 points at the city ordinance rather than setting a number, so whatever the council adopts is the operative limit
• Utility will-serve letters for water, sewer, or power, or who pays for transmission upgrades
• The tenant or end user of the compute, and whether the "Innovation Center" has a budget, a staff, or a partner institution behind it

The Innovation Center and "Americus Tech Campus" are defined at length in §1(D) as a workforce, education, and innovation ecosystem, but that paragraph carries no square footage, no dollar figure, no staffing level, and no completion test separate from Phase One.

Enforcement: what actually happens if the promises are not kept

This is where the document repays close reading.

The clawback protects the land. §15 gives the Authority an absolute option to repurchase the property for $1.00 if the city declines a needed rezoning, if Liberty cannot or will not obtain its permits and utility connections, if Liberty decides the site is unsuitable, or if Liberty fails to begin actual construction within 18 months of closing. Closing on a repurchase happens within 30 days, by limited warranty deed, free of liens. §15(B) has Liberty waive and release any claim against the Authority arising from its own failure to perform.

The money remedy is capped at the value of the land. §16 gives Liberty 60 days to cure a default after written notice. An uncured first default lets the Authority demand reimbursement of one-half of the agreed $469,000 fair market value; an uncured second default lets it demand the other half. Read together, the maximum monetary exposure written into this agreement is $469,000 — against a project described as a $1 billion to $5 billion investment. There is no separate penalty tied to the 150 jobs or the $80,000 average wage.

The verification window may close before the jobs obligation ripens. §4(C) makes the incentives contingent on annual verification "at the end of years 2 through 5," and §6 requires an annual compliance report each December 1 listing headcount, average wages and benefits, and capital invested to date. But §3(E) does not require the 150 jobs until two years after the final phase is complete — December 2035 on the schedule in §3(A). The agreement does not say what date year one runs from, so it is worth asking the Authority in writing whether any verification year reaches the year the jobs are actually due.

The counterparty can change without consent. §24 (Binding Agreement; Assignment) bars assignment to a third party without written consent, but expressly allows Liberty to assign to an affiliate on 30 days' written notice, with the affiliate assuming the obligations. An affiliate is anything under common control.

Nothing said in a meeting counts. The merger clause at §25 states that the document is the sole and entire agreement and that there are "no oral or written representations, understandings, promises, covenants, inducements, or agreements" outside it. Assurances given from a podium are not enforceable; only the text is.

The term outlives everything else. §20 runs the agreement until the data center "is completely closed and ceases operation." Georgia law governs, and any litigation is to be filed in the Superior Court of Sumter County. §18, §19

Two things to read carefully

The signature block. The notice addresses at §8 name Tony Di Benedetto for Liberty, at an e-mail address at boltdigitaltech.com, with Krevolin & Horst, LLC of Atlanta as counsel (Attn: Jacquelyn A. Caroe). The hand-printed name under the Liberty signature reads as Paul Di Benedetto. The scan does not settle who signed; the Authority's file copy would.

The drafting. The paragraph numbering runs 21, then 24, then 23, 24 again, then 25 — there is no paragraph 22, and two paragraphs are numbered 24. §9(A) says "statues" for statutes and §1(A) says "service" where it means servers. None of this changes what the agreement requires, but a contract conveying public land for a dollar is worth proofreading, and the numbering should be corrected by amendment before anyone has to cite it in a dispute.

Records to obtain next

The agreement names documents that exist and are not yet public. Each has an identifiable custodian:

• The Real Estate Purchase and Sale Agreement of July 1, 2026 referenced in the preamble, and the closing documents
• The wetlands report, Phase I environmental study, and boundary survey the Authority paid for under §4(B)
• The plat at Plat Book F, Page 316, from the Clerk of Superior Court of Sumter County
• The minutes and the vote by which the Authority approved this agreement, and the notice for that meeting
• Any annual compliance report filed under §6, once one is due
• Any tax abatement, bond, or PILOT agreement — this document conveys land and sets conditions, but it is not by itself a tax agreement, and none is attached

See how to obtain the records and reach the officials for the request procedure and the three-business-day deadline.

Safe public statement

A signed development agreement exists. It fixes the site, the phasing, the buildout floor, a 30-year operating covenant, and a set of real conditions — city water and sewer instead of private wells, no open-loop cooling, emergency-only generators, shielded lighting, and noise measured at the property line. It does not state a single megawatt, gallon, or decibel, its only monetary remedy for default is the $469,000 value of the land, and its merger clause means nothing promised outside the page is binding.