Instead, data center and high-intensity industrial interest in and around Auburndale and Polk County centers around a few key energy-dense locations:<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Screenshot-1-3.webp\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n- \n
- 324 Recker Highway (Auburndale):<\/strong> This 13-acre industrial development site is marketed specifically as a 40 MW Powered Data Center \/ Industrial Site<\/strong>. Rather than converting an old warehouse building, it is positioned as a ready-to-build footprint located directly fence-to-fence with the 540 MW Osprey Energy Center and its dual-feed switching station, making it a prime grid-dense node for an AI or mid-size data center.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Broader Polk County Activity:<\/strong> If you are tracking massive regional data center proposals, the biggest headlines in Polk County involve a completely greenfield project further south\u2014the approved $2.6 billion, 4.4 million-square-foot hyperscale data center campus spanning over 1,000 acres in Fort Meade<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Industrial site listings in Auburndale reflect active marketing of a 13-acre site at 324 Recker Highway<\/strong> specifically as a 40 MW Powered Data Center \/ Industrial Site<\/strong>.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key Site Specifications & Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Location:<\/strong> 324 Recker Highway, Auburndale, FL<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Power Node:<\/strong> The property sits directly adjacent (fence-to-fence) to the 540 MW Osprey Energy Center<\/strong> and its 230 kV substation, eliminating long-distance power interconnect hurdles.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Capacity Timeline:<\/strong> Marketing materials cite a preliminary utility service assessment for 10 MW by late 2028<\/strong> and full expansion up to 40 MW by late 2029<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Intended Use:<\/strong> High-density AI compute \/ High-Performance Computing (HPC), advanced industrial manufacturing, or utility-scale energy\/battery storage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
+-------------------------------------------------------------+\n | 324 Recker Highway (13 Acres) |\n | Target: 40 MW Mid-Size AI \/ HPC Data Center |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------+\n |\n Direct Adjacency & Redundant 230 kV Interconnect\n |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------+\n | Osprey Energy Center (540 MW) & Substation Node |\n +-------------------------------------------------------------+\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nRegional Context & Surrounding Proposals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Data center demand along the I-4 corridor between Tampa and Orlando is driving several nearby proposals across Polk County:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Lakeland (“Project Swan”):<\/strong> A proposed 600,000-square-foot hyperscale data center on ~60 acres off Old Tampa Highway. In response to power and water concerns, Lakeland city leaders introduced temporary moratoriums to establish long-term regulations for heavy utility users.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Fort Meade:<\/strong> Final site approvals were granted for a large-scale, $2.6B, 4.4 million-square-foot hyperscale campus across 1,100+ acres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hillwood Development Company filed an application for a building permit for a planned data center in two existing buildings on 75 acres in Auburndale A widespread initiative is converting an… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtMy53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiTmV3IEF1YnVybmRhbGUgRGF0YSBDZW50ZXIgU2l0ZSBUYXJnZXRzIDQwIE1XIGF0IFJlY2tlciBIaWdod2F5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.7nFWPBGXxjdOMriElXPC5HKH40YMwlUQQSVj47pvMMsMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzExXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtMy53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiTmV3IEF1YnVybmRhbGUgRGF0YSBDZW50ZXIgU2l0ZSBUYXJnZXRzIDQwIE1XIGF0IFJlY2tlciBIaWdod2F5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.7nFWPBGXxjdOMriElXPC5HKH40YMwlUQQSVj47pvMMsMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[18995,16445,16547,18944,16598,18994,18993],"class_list":["post-87105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-ai-compute","tag-auburndale","tag-data-center","tag-energy-infrastructure","tag-industrial-real-estate","tag-osprey-energy-center","tag-recker-highway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87114,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87105\/revisions\/87114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Fort Meade:<\/strong> Final site approvals were granted for a large-scale, $2.6B, 4.4 million-square-foot hyperscale campus across 1,100+ acres.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
- Power Node:<\/strong> The property sits directly adjacent (fence-to-fence) to the 540 MW Osprey Energy Center<\/strong> and its 230 kV substation, eliminating long-distance power interconnect hurdles.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Broader Polk County Activity:<\/strong> If you are tracking massive regional data center proposals, the biggest headlines in Polk County involve a completely greenfield project further south\u2014the approved $2.6 billion, 4.4 million-square-foot hyperscale data center campus spanning over 1,000 acres in Fort Meade<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n