Eagle Mountain seeks 20-year tax increment and full personal-property abatement for proposed $750M–$1B data‑center park

Eagle Mountain City officials on May 1 presented a proposed Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) that would support a large data‑center industrial park and asked Utah County commissioners to consider a unique package of tax incentives.

City Administrator Iffo Pili told the board the project could be among the largest tax‑increment investments in Utah and described a phased plan the city expects to grow over years. ‘‘This project potentially will be the biggest project, power wise, tax increment wise to ever land in the state of Utah,’’ Pili said during the work session.

Rob Sant, financial consultant for Lewis Young Robertson, told the county the proposal centers on 487 acres in the city’s southwest, with a first phase of roughly 970,000 square feet (900,000 sf data center; 70,000 sf office). Sant said assessed value for buildings, land increment and personal property is estimated at about $750 million and could reach $1 billion depending on assessment.

To attract the data‑center operator, the redevelopment agency is asking for a 20‑year project area that would allocate 100% of personal property tax increment to the agency and 80% of the incremental real property tax (leaving 20% to taxing entities). Sant said the developer’s request reflects frequent reinvestment and equipment refresh cycles—‘‘they're going to reinvest every 3 to 5 years’’—and that some other Utah taxing entities have granted similar personal‑property participation.

Sant’s slides projected that annual incremental real property tax revenue would rise from a current base of about $66 to roughly $837,000 and produce about $17 million in incremental real property revenue over 20 years; the presentation estimated annual tax‑increment receipts to the agency in the mid‑millions and a 20‑year total in the low hundreds of millions depending on assessment and depreciation schedules.

Presenters described safeguards they would include in interlocal agreements: benchmarks that trigger tax increment only after specified development milestones and language ensuring a developer receives increment only for tax dollars it actually produces. Sant also flagged the CRA’s statutory housing requirement: 10% of tax increment must be used for housing‑related purposes, which the city has not yet finalized how to apply.

Commissioners questioned the durability of the projected return and how taxing entities such as the Unified Fire Service Area would be affected. Pili and Sant said the developer would pay infrastructure and impact fees, limiting the city’s upfront obligations, and that agreements could include annual benchmarks to hold the developer to a schedule. Pili added the developer anticipates major upfront private investment—‘‘about a $100,000,000 right out the gate in infrastructure and power’’—and would coordinate with Rocky Mountain Power on transmission capacity.

Next steps: Eagle Mountain has scheduled a public hearing for its agency on May 15 and stated it hopes to be on the county’s agenda in mid‑May for county consideration of the interlocal and participation terms. Commissioners did not take a formal vote at the May 1 presentation; staff and presenters agreed to follow up with written materials and interlocal draft language.