Amp Z (Project Lufkin)

Amp Z Champion Data Center Holdings · Lufkin · Angelina County

Amp Z plans a 2.1 GW AI colocation campus on the former Southland Paper mill site on State Highway 103 east of Lufkin, stepping up the mill's 55 MW Oncor tie and adding gas generation. As of October 2026 the site has no construction, no county tax abatement and no signed Oncor power agreement, and its state permits sit inside the Texas data center pause.

Who holds each layer of the Project Lufkin deal: Verdant Industries owns the land under an Amp Z purchase option, Oncor supplies grid power, Amp Z would build and operate, and no tenant is named. WHO HOLDS EACH LAYER LAND AND SITE Verdant Industries; Amp Z purchase option POWER Oncor grid tie; Longleaf gas in talks BUILDINGS AND OPERATIONS Amp Z Champion Data Center Holdings CAPITAL Amp Energy platform, Carlyle-backed TENANT Not announced (merchant colocation)
Planned
2.1 GW
Power
Grid plus gas
Land
1,041 acres
Status
Proposed
County
Angelina
Sector
AI and data centers

Overview

A Newsprint Mill Site Under Option for AI Colocation

The Southland Paper Mills plant on State Highway 103 east of Lufkin began making newsprint in 1940, the first commercial mill to make it from southern pine. It later passed to Abitibi and closed in the 2000s, and Verdant Industries bought the site at auction in 2010 for $11 million.

In February 2026 a memorandum of option recorded in Angelina County gave Amp Z Champion Data Center Holdings, a Denver-based company formed in 2025 under the Amp Energy platform, the right to buy about 1,041 acres from Verdant. The land sits outside Lufkin city limits and is classed as heavy industrial. Estimates of the investment run from about $1 billion (City of Lufkin) to $1.5 billion (County Judge Keith Wright). The campus is a brownfield inheritance case that reuses the mill's substation and grid tie.

Profile
OperatorAmp Z Champion Data Center Holdings (Amp Energy platform)
LocationState Highway 103 East, outside Lufkin, Angelina County
Distance from AustinAbout 200 miles east
Planned capacity2.1 GW by 2029 (developer plan)
GridOncor; existing 55 MW substation from the mill
On-site generationAbout 1 GW planned; Longleaf gas contract in negotiation
LandAbout 1,041 acres under option, expandable toward 4,000
InvestmentAbout $1B to $1.5B (city and county figures)
Jobs500 construction, 30 permanent
StatusProposed; no construction as of July 2026

Energy model

Grid Step-Up From the Mill's 55 MW Tie, Plus Gas Generation

The plan phases against the mill's existing 55 MW interconnection: 175 MW of grid service in 2026, 1.1 GW by 2028, then about 1 GW of self-generation by 2029 for a 2.1 GW total. The 2026 step has not happened. Grid growth depends on Oncor, whose collateral rules for large loads apply, and on large-load studies by ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas) under SB 6 (2025).

For generation, Amp Z is negotiating power contracts with Longleaf Generating, which won a 10-year Angelina County tax abatement in May 2025 for a $350 million gas plant in north Lufkin near Kurth Lake. ERCOT's queue lists the Longleaf Power Station at 600 MW, with commercial operation expected in March 2029. Longleaf is a separate plant on a separate site, so the 1 GW of behind-the-meter (BTM) generation remains a developer target, not a permitted plant.

Deal structure

Optioned Land, a Developer Platform and No Named Tenant

Verdant Industries still owns the land, and Amp Z holds the option to buy it. Amp Z Champion Data Center Holdings would build and operate the campus as merchant colocation, leasing halls and power to tenants that bring their own chips. Parent Amp Energy has investment from Carlyle. No tenant, chip platform or project financing has been announced.

Because the site is outside city limits, any tax abatement has to come from Angelina County. Amp Z filed a preliminary abatement application, and commissioners returned it asking for more detail. Texas counties have no zoning power, so an abatement is the county's only lever for terms such as noise limits, buffers and cleanup bonds.

Constraints

Local Opposition and the State Permit Pause

Residents filled county and city meetings in June 2026 over noise, light, air, water and property values, and in July commissioners asked the Legislature for authority to regulate data centers. A second developer, HyperDataGrid, is ahead of Amp Z on the former Northern Chip Mill site on Highway 103 West, with power and water agreements in place.

The state pause reaches the campus on two fronts. Its Oncor load growth falls under the ERCOT and PUCT (Public Utility Commission of Texas) audit of grid-connected data centers ordered August 3, 2026, and since September 21 the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has held data center air and water permits, including permits for on-site power. KTRE reported in late September that state permits for both Angelina County campuses were on hold. See Texas Data Center Moratorium.

Record

Dataset Record

Sources
Data Center Dynamics, Texas Tribune, KLTV, KTRE, Lufkin Daily News, City of Lufkin, Compute Atlas, Cleanview (ERCOT interconnection queue)
Last verified
October 2026