College Station council denies Priority Power land-sale after hours of public opposition

Mayor John P. Nichols opened a long, heavily attended City Council meeting Sept. 11 by moving a high-profile real-estate item — a proposed sale of roughly 200 acres in Midtown Business Park to Priority Power Management LLC — up the agenda and inviting a staff presentation and company briefing. City staff said the deal would put the land under option at $150,000 per acre while the buyer performs feasibility studies on power and water and completes a due-diligence period before closing.

The city’s chief development officer, Michael Ostrovsky, told council the property has been zoned M-1 industrial for decades and reviewed the contract structure, environmental and operational safeguards under consideration, and the scale of potential development depending on how much power could be brought to the site. "This is a permitted use within that district," Ostrovsky said, but he emphasized the prospect required separate power and water agreements and significant studies before construction could begin.

Brandon Schwertner, identified in the meeting as the CEO of Priority Power, briefed the council and the public on his company’s approach. He described Priority Power as a developer and energy manager that arranges generation, transmission and cooling solutions for large compute facilities. Schwertner said Priority Power would remove explicit references to cryptocurrency mining from the contract language and pressed for a feasibility period that would allow the firm to secure the large electrical loads it said tenants would require. "I'm Brandon Schwertner. I'm the CEO of Priority Power," he told the council. "The land option language should be revised to remove any reference to Bitcoin mining or cryptocurrency. That is not the desired tenant of this site." (Brandon Schwertner)

Council members questioned company and staff about where hundreds of megawatts would be sourced, how power would be wheeled in, the likelihood of backup generation, the mechanics of noise studies and enforcement, and whether deed restrictions could prevent unwelcome uses. Ostrovsky repeatedly said that the buyer would need to secure separate power and water agreements and that the real-estate contract contained repurchase rights and other protections if the buyer did not commence development on a set schedule.

The public-comment period stretched for hours and drew an unusually large crowd. Nearly every in-person speaker who addressed item 9.5 opposed the proposed sale or asked that council delay action until more study and public engagement. Concerns cited repeatedly included excessive long-term water use, noise impacts from continuous mechanical cooling and backup generators, the prospect of higher electric rates for residents, erosion of the Midtown mixed-use vision that residents said had been previously promised for the property, and what many speakers described as a rushed, secretive rollout of the contract.

Resident speakers offered a mix of technical and experiential claims. Several cited reporting and litigation related to a data‑center or crypto site in Granbury, Texas, where neighbors have reported persistent noise and health complaints; others raised studies and local-utility constraints showing the local grid and water supplies may be insufficient for the scale of load discussed. "When similar high‑power facilities were built elsewhere, residents reported increased energy bills, property-value declines and persistent noise" a resident summarized during public comment.

Priority Power and some speakers with industry experience argued that modern AI-focused data centers can be quieter and use closed-loop cooling that limits municipal water demands, and offered to host council site visits. Schwertner said some new facilities he knows of report decibel readings below 50 at certain reference points and argued the economics and research benefits of a locally sited high-performance computing center.

Following hours of testimony and deliberation, Councilmember McElhinney moved to deny the proposed real-estate contract with Priority Power; a council member was assigned to second the motion. The council adopted the motion by voice vote, removing the sale from consideration that night. The mayor noted that the council had heard a clear message from residents and that the council would not take the sale forward as proposed.

Council then resumed its posted agenda. It unanimously approved Budget Amendment No. 3 (FY25) — an administrative package of grants and interfund adjustments — and separately approved a construction procurement amendment tied to water wells. City planning staff also presented two amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance to comply with state Senate Bill 1567: a revised zoning-level definition of "family" for UDO purposes and removal of Restricted-Occupancy overlays. Council adopted those zoning updates to bring the UDO into compliance but asked staff to schedule a workshop to reexamine how the municipal code uses the term "family" in other non-zoning programs. Finally, the Council approved a contract amendment for long-lead procurement on the Wells 10–12 project.

What's next: Council asked staff to return with a short-area planning/workshop proposal to reexamine Midtown's long-range vision and directed planning staff to schedule a public workshop to re-evaluate the municipal definition of "family" for contexts beyond zoning. The city also announced a public engagement meeting on Sept. 30 about proposed overnight-parking changes in Southside and Eastgate.

Credits and attribution: Quotes and attributions in this article come from speakers identified in the City of College Station meeting transcript of Sept. 11, 2025, including Mayor John P. Nichols, Michael Ostrovsky (chief development officer), and Brandon Schwertner (Priority Power CEO). Where speakers were not explicitly identified in the transcript, statements are reported as unattributed public comment. The council's formal motions and vote outcomes are recorded in the meeting minutes and are reflected here.

Ending: The council adjourned shortly after 1:00 a.m. after completing several consent and administrative items. Staff was directed to prepare follow-up briefings and public workshops on Midtown planning and the municipal use of the term "family".