Meta Forest City Data Center

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.

1. 2012

   Operating
   Broke ground 2010, operational ~2012; multi-parcel campus owned by Andale LLC (Meta subsidiary, SEC-confirmed); $750M+ NC investment. Source: Meta Data Centers

Opposition and litigation at this site

Not that we can document. Local officials or residents have expressed public support for Meta Forest City Data Center in Forest City, Rutherford County, North Carolina, and no opposition, petition, or lawsuit appears in the sources this registry tracks as of August 15, 2026. Forest City Town Manager Janet Mason described Meta as 'an excellent neighbor,' citing supplies and volunteer help distributed after Hurricane Helene, and noted the facility brought few of the negatives associated with data centers.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: supported means local officials or residents have expressed public support and no opposition is documented.

Forest City Town Manager Janet Mason described Meta as 'an excellent neighbor,' citing supplies and volunteer help distributed after Hurricane Helene, and noted the facility brought few of the negatives associated with data centers.

Source: WUNC

Power and water

Multiple independent outlets describe the Forest City data center as running on 100% renewable solar energy backed by five separate NC solar PPAs arranged through Duke Energy, consistent with Meta's site-specific procurement pattern at its other campuses.

Consumed about 4 million gallons of water in 2024, per WUNC. Forest City's town manager said officials 'were shocked at how little water they used.'

Public money on the record

Notes on the record

Meta (Facebook) data center on Social Circle, Forest City, Rutherford County, broke ground 2010, operational ~2012, a multi-parcel campus (parcels owned by 'Andale LLC', a Meta subsidiary confirmed via Meta's SEC 10-K Exhibit 21.1 and the Menlo Park HQ mailing address), with a third facility announced 2015. Meta reports $750M+ invested in North Carolina; the 408 Social Circle parcel alone carries $176.9M assessed building value (built, not land-bank). No site-specific IT-load MW is disclosed. Coordinates are a Rutherford County GIS parcel centroid, held approximate pending a raw-geometry re-pull; a follow-up GIS pass could upgrade precision to exact.

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.

• Cielo Digital Infrastructure Gaffney Campus · Gaffney · Cielo Digital Infrastructure, LLC23 mi · Proposed · 300 MW
• T5@Charlotte · Kings Mountain · T5 Data Centers25 mi · Operating
• Greenidge Spartanburg (South Carolina) · Spartanburg · Greenidge Generation26 mi · Cancelled · 100 MW
• NorthMark Strategies Spartanburg High-Performance Computing Center · Spartanburg · Valara Holdings (NorthMark Strategies)27 mi · Under construction · 450 MW

Questions people ask about this site