Residents petition against proposed data center in Jailhouse Studios
The floorplan of one of the Jailhouse Studio floors.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Last week, a new project was presented that some say would give an economic boost to downtown Chattanooga at the Hamilton County Commission.
Proposed by Urban Story Ventures, Jailhouse Studios would turn the former downtown jail into a music, film, and art studio.
It would also bring in an AI data center from Oracle, one of the largest companies in the world.
That data center has prompted criticism from some residents, as 612 have signed a petition against the data center being brought to Chattanooga.
This data center, which would process AI and Quantum computing needs, is prompting concerns for citizens like Noah Johnston, whose wife Erica started that petition.
Johnston said, “I have heard accounts of Oracle Enterprises being established in other parts of the country and it seems that they all have one thing in common, which is that things move very rapidly without input.”
These concerns mirror a national trend of controversy surrounding data centers.
The most notable example in our region is criticism of X AI’s data center in Memphis owned by Elon Musk, which has been accused of polluting that area and straining water and electrical resources.
Jules Armstrong, a downtown Chattanooga resident, told Commissioners, “This could drive up the energy cost for the neighborhood, for the city, for the county by in some places as much as 267%.”
During their presentation last week, Urban Story Ventures CEO Jimmy White, along with other stakeholders such as Kesslar Cuffman of Dynamo Studios and the Songbirds Foundation, say this data center would not be like the other controversial ones across the country.
Cuffman said, “This is not the model where it’s like you know the scourge of the environment. Destroys you know electrical bills for people. The way they build these, it’s cost-effective and will mitigate all those issues that people worry about with them. So these are very different from what you might normally see.”
White added, “They are quite literally 10,000 square-foot boxes that require AVHC, the technology has advanced.”
However, those who are concerned say they want to hear more answers.
Johnston said,”If it was simply a music film studio coming in town I’d be thrilled. I see nothing wrong with that. I grew up as an art kid myself. The fact that there isn’t a lot of details on this, including the data centers, and we haven’t gotten a lot of specifics, it causes concern.”
A resolution to approve this project has not been introduced at the Hamilton County Commission.
