Data Center Registry
Project River Data Center
Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee
Project River Data Center is a proposed data center in Cleveland, Tennessee (Bradley County), operated by Wright Brothers Construction. The public record puts it at announced August 2026, 850 acres, a reported $7.3 billion investment. 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.
What our reporting adds
Our case file documents this site. No lawsuit filed. Annexation and rezoning pending before the City of Cleveland; PUD 77 final draft released September 18, 2026; Planning Commission presentation September 21; council vote expected October at the earliest.
Facility record
Proposed
- Operator
- Wright Brothers Construction
- Facility type
- Data center, AI use likely
- Location
- Cleveland, Bradley County, TN
- Coordinates
- 35.3314, -84.8686 (approximate)
- Power capacity
- Not established from a public source
- Land
- 850 acres
- Investment
- $7.3 billion
- Announced
- August 2026
- Utility
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- Power source
- Mixed
- On site generation
- 1.5 GW
- Cooling
- Closed loop
- Water use
- Not established from a public source
- Jobs
- 525 permanent
- Public subsidy
- Not established from a public source
- Community reception
- Contested
- Source confidence
- Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing
Opposition and litigation at this site
Yes. Project River Data Center in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record. No lawsuit filed.
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.
No lawsuit filed. Annexation and rezoning pending before the City of Cleveland; PUD 77 final draft released September 18, 2026; Planning Commission presentation September 21; council vote expected October at the earliest. Residents packed a Cleveland Planning Commission meeting in August 2026 over a separate, nearly-400-acre Wright Brothers proposal, with much of the concern centred on fears a data center could be developed there. Neighbouring business owner Ryan Kertesz of B & B Marina told WTVC he has worries about effects on wildlife. Bradley County Mayor Gary Davis said publicly he was told of the announcement only as a courtesy and was not involved in developing or negotiating the project. Two public information forums were scheduled at the PIE Center for 2026-09-01 and 2026-09-12.
Power and water
Powered behind the meter by the co-located Project River energy campus (500 MW biomass plus 1,000 MW natural gas), with a requested 360 MW TVA interconnection for backup and peaking only. Developers say no diesel generators.
The developer states the campus makes its own water by recovering moisture as biomass dries, running on a closed loop, and says it recovers enough clean water annually to supply both the power plant and the anchor tenant with no day-to-day draw on the municipal system. CEO Mitchell Simpson told Mix 104.1 WCLE the biomass process yields 200 gallons per minute of usable internal water for cooling loops and that the plant needs no river intake or discharge pipes. Classified as closed-loop because the developer describes the captured water as circulating continuously in a closed loop; as of September 2026 the sources do not state the heat-rejection equipment.
Notes on the record
The data-center tenant is not confirmed. Wright Brothers Construction CEO Mitchell Simpson told Mix 104.1 WCLE on 2026-08-26 that the power plant is certain but its offtaker is not: "We definitely know we're developing a power plant... We don't know what it's going to power yet... It potentially could be a data center, but it very well could be something else," naming advanced manufacturing, robotics and semiconductor manufacturing as alternatives, before adding that with that much power "it's very likely going to be that." The company's own 2026-08-26 release describes the campus as "anchored by an on-site power plant and data center." The record is marked reported for that reason. Roughly 850 acres of privately-owned Wright family land west of I-75 and north of Old Lower River Road NW, along the Hiwassee River in northern Bradley County near I-75 Exit 33, submitted for rezoning and annexation into the City of Cleveland on 2026-08-25. The $11.3bn headline is the whole campus; $7.3bn is the data-center portion as itemised in press coverage. Groundbreaking is not expected until end of 2027 and the build is phased over 60 months. Coordinates are a geocode of Lower River Road NW, not the parcel; no source states lat/lon. No state or local incentive agreement is named in any of the three sources.
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.
- Power capacity in megawatts
- Tax abatements or other public subsidy
Which document closes each gap
- Power capacity in megawatts
- The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
- 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.
Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.
Our reporting on this site
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 MidSpan Data Center (Hiwassee River Industrial Park, behind Walker Valley High School) · SDCL Tennessee Propco LLC6 mi · Proposed · In litigation
- CleanSpark Decatur Bitcoin Mining Facility · Decatur · CleanSpark, Inc.13 mi · Operating
Questions people ask about this site
Is there opposition to the Project River Data Center in Cleveland?
Yes. Project River Data Center in Cleveland, Bradley County, Tennessee is contested. Hearings, public comment, petitions, or organized opposition are on record. No lawsuit filed.
Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Project River Data Center?
The reception note on this record refers to a court proceeding. Read it in full under opposition and litigation above, and check the sources at the foot of the page for the filing itself.
How much water does Project River Data Center use?
No water withdrawal figure for Project River Data Center is on record here. Cooling is recorded as closed_loop, which is the strongest available clue: closed loop and air cooled plant draw far less than evaporative cooling. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.
Who operates Project River Data Center, and how big is it?
Wright Brothers Construction is the operator on record. No capacity figure is on record for this site. The site is recorded at 850 acres.
How to cite this page
SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Project River Data Center," updated September 9, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/project-river-data-center-bradley-county-tn.
Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/project-river-data-center-bradley-county-tn, retrieved October 29, 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.Project River, An Industrial Energy Campus That Supplies Itself · Wright Brothers Construction · retrieved September 9, 2026
- 2.Proponents Of Bradley County Project With Large-Scale Data Center Cite Tax Benefits · Chattanoogan.com · retrieved September 9, 2026
- 3.$11.3B data center pitch in Bradley County comes amid growing local skepticism · NewsChannel 9 / WTVC · retrieved September 9, 2026
- 4.Bradley County Made Data Centers Almost Impossible in April. In August, 850 Acres Asked to Join the City Instead, Where the Proposed Setback Is 500 Feet Rather Than 3,000. · SueDataCenters.org · retrieved September 18, 2026
- 5.Project River: the developer's own site, with the 1,500 MW phasing to 1,860 MW, "over $11 billion," 2,600+ jobs, "zero local utility water day-to-day," 6 million tons of timber within 200 miles, and the Resolute Calhoun and International Paper Cleveland mill closures · projectriver.energy · retrieved September 18, 2026
- 6.Chattanooga Times Free Press: Project River, $11.3B Bradley County campus aims to revive logging, attract data center, August 26, 2026, with the 850 acres, the $7.3 billion data center line, the full investment itemisation, 900 jobs at a $84,600 median, 5 million tons of timber a year, and the Simpson and Salyer quotes · timesfreepress.com · retrieved September 18, 2026
- 7.Chattanooga Times Free Press: Bradley County Commission approves strict data center rules, "Almost impossible," April 20, 2026, with the unanimous vote, the 3,000 foot setbacks and Commissioner Milan Blake's assessment · timesfreepress.com · retrieved September 18, 2026
- 8.NewsChannel 9 / WTVC: Bradley County sets rules for data centers, rejecting calls for an outright ban, with the commission's reasoning that a ban would be constitutionally suspect · newschannel9.com · retrieved September 18, 2026
- 9.NewsChannel 9 / WTVC: Bradley County residents get their turn to question developers behind $11.3B Project River, September 1 to 2, 2026, with Lukas Salyer's "it is not a data center" and the resident responses · newschannel9.com · retrieved September 18, 2026
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