Data Center Registry
Cielo Haines City Data Center
Haines City, Polk County, Florida · All 3 Cielo Digital Infrastructure sites
Cielo Haines City Data Center is a proposed data center in Haines City, Florida (Polk County), operated by Cielo Digital Infrastructure. The public record puts it at announced June 2026, 300 MW planned, 74 acres. It is the subject of active public debate, with hearings, petitions, or organized opposition on record.
Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.
Facility record
Proposed
- Operator
- Cielo Digital Infrastructure
- Facility type
- Data center, AI use likely
- Location
- Marion Road at State Road 544-East, Haines City, Polk County, FL
- Coordinates
- 28.1114, -81.6198 (approximate)
- Power capacity
- 300 MW planned
- Land
- 74 acres
- Investment
- Not established from a public source
- Announced
- June 2026
- Utility
- Not established from a public source
- Cooling
- Not established from a public source
- Water use
- 0.15 million gallons a day, reported
- Jobs
- Not established from a public source
- Public subsidy
- Not established from a public source
- Community reception
- Contested
- Source confidence
- Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing
Timeline from the record
Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.
- July 2026ProposedProject publicly disclosed via local news coverage of city commission records. No formal site plan, zoning request, or development agreement filed. Blocked pending Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) approval of a Water Use Permit modification; city officials say full approval is unlikely before end of 2026. Source: Yahoo Finance (syndicating Data Center Dynamics)
- November 2025ProposedCielo Digital Infrastructure held an initial meeting with Haines City on Nov 4, 2025; the Deputy City Manager signed a non-binding concurrence letter on Nov 17, 2025 -- roughly seven months before the project became public. Source: The Citrus Tea
Opposition and litigation at this site
Yes. Cielo Haines City Data Center in Haines City, Polk County, Florida is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record, and no lawsuit has been filed so far. City commissioners Anne Huffman, Kim Downing, and Lekia Johnson have voiced opposition citing infrastructure, energy, water, traffic, and quality-of-life concerns.
How the community has taken it
Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: contested means active public debate is on record, with hearings, petitions, or organized opposition, without litigation.
City commissioners Anne Huffman, Kim Downing, and Lekia Johnson have voiced opposition citing infrastructure, energy, water, traffic, and quality-of-life concerns. City was under Phase III water restrictions (once-weekly lawn watering) at time of public disclosure. No lawsuits identified as of Aug 2026.
Power and water
Cielo has requested 150,000 gallons/day. Haines City's pending SWFWMD Water Use Permit modification seeks to raise the city's total Floridan Aquifer allocation to 16.42M gal/day; city currently pumps ~7M of a permitted 10M gal/day and cannot cover the request without separate SWFWMD Governing Board approval.
Notes on the record
300 MW planned, ~74-acre site along Marion Road and State Road 544 East, Haines City, Polk County -- pre-application stage (no site plan, zoning request, or development agreement filed as of Aug 2026), distinct from the already-tracked Lakeland (Ryan Companies/Project Swan) and Fort Meade (Stonebridge/Florida Ecopark) Polk County sites. No precise parcel address, investment figure, or jobs figure disclosed in any source found; coordinates are the Haines City area centroid, not the actual site. The Data Center Dynamics original report (sources[2]) returned a 403 on direct re-fetch this session -- corroborated via Yahoo Finance syndication and independent Citrus Tea investigative reporting citing city commission records; multiple other independent local outlets (WFLA, Fox 13 Tampa Bay, Bay News 9) covered the same story at headline level.
What the record does not establish, and the document that would
In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.
- Tax abatements or other public subsidy
- Permanent jobs promised
- Which utility serves it
Which document closes each gap
- Tax abatements or other public subsidy
- The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
- Permanent jobs promised
- The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
- Which utility serves it
- The electric service agreement or the utility's filing with the state public utility commission.
Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.
Other sites within 30 miles
Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.
- Project Swan · Lakeland · Ryan Companies (end operator TBD)24 mi · Cancelled · Opposed
- CoreSite OR1, Orlando · Orlando · CoreSite25 mi · Operating
- Florida Ecopark AI Data Center Campus · Fort Meade · Stonebridge (via Florida Ecopark LLC; end tenant undisclosed)27 mi · Proposed · 1.2 GW · Contested
Questions people ask about this site
Is there opposition to the Cielo Haines City Data Center in Haines City?
Yes. Cielo Haines City Data Center in Haines City, Polk County, Florida is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record, and no lawsuit has been filed so far. City commissioners Anne Huffman, Kim Downing, and Lekia Johnson have voiced opposition citing infrastructure, energy, water, traffic, and quality-of-life concerns.
Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Cielo Haines City Data Center?
No lawsuit over Cielo Haines City Data Center appears in the record we track as of September 10, 2026. Residents most often reach a lawyer over water supply, well drawdown, noise from cooling plant, property value, or a rezoning approved without the notice the ordinance required. If any of that is happening near this site, it is worth a review whether or not a case has been filed yet.
How much water does Cielo Haines City Data Center use?
0.15 million gallons a day is the reported figure on record. Cielo has requested 150,000 gallons/day.
Who operates Cielo Haines City Data Center, and how big is it?
Cielo Digital Infrastructure is the operator on record. We hold 3 sites for that company across the registry. Capacity on record is 300 MW. The site is recorded at 74 acres.
How to cite this page
SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Cielo Haines City Data Center," updated September 10, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/cielo-haines-city-fl.
Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.32.0 (September 7, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/cielo-haines-city-fl, retrieved September 14, 2026.
Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.
Sources for this record
As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.
- 1.Florida data center project stalls amid water permit fight · Yahoo Finance (syndicating Data Center Dynamics) · retrieved August 2, 2026 · original offline, no archived copy found
- 2.Haines City data center: new documents show what commissioners were told before the public, and when · The Citrus Tea · retrieved August 2, 2026
- 3.Planned data center in Florida held back by lack of available water from city · Data Center Dynamics · retrieved August 2, 2026
- 4.Haines City data center project stalled by water capacity shortage · retrieved September 10, 2026
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