NEW INFO UPDATE: Lee County to review proposal for PointOne Data Center

PointeOne Data Center is proposed for 4079 Lower Moncure Road in Lee County, North Carolina.

Applicant Jonathon Rhine proposed the 428.85-acre light industrial data center with a fire water tank, fire pump house and associated infrastructure.

Rhine proposed public water and sewer.

The project manager would be Steve Russel.

According to Lee County Government, this is the first time this project has been proposed for review and is categorized as “Data Center” and permitted within the LI (Light Industrial) zoning district subject to supplemental development standards found in §5.52 of the Unified Development Ordinance.

If approved by the preliminary review committee, the next step in the process is building permit application submittal.

The property is owned by Helix Ventures, a real estate investment firm in Cary.

The Sanford Area Growth Alliance (SAGA) sent the following information this afternoon.

“Helix Ventures and PointOne are partnering to build a new technology park on Lower Moncure Road near the Jetport, with a focus on data center development. The application for Phase One of the project, submitted to the Technical Review Committee (TRC), calls for a $900 million investment in built infrastructure, with 2-3x that number or more anticipated in installed technology.

While data centers are not a target sector for SAGA’s recruiting efforts, and this project is not receiving any financial incentives from the local government, the developers’ decision to site this project in Lee County represents an outstanding economic development opportunity for our community. The dramatic tax base expansion associated with capital investment of this scale could add millions of dollars in tax revenue without the demand for the myriad costly services required by residential development. In fact, the proposed capital investment for this building alone would equal a subdivision of about 2,500 homes.  

In response to community concerns about the potential impacts of data center development, SAGA has worked diligently with other community stakeholders over the past several months to ensure the community’s development ordinances directly addressed those concerns. An initial review of the TRC application reveals that this project meets or exceeds all the relevant requirements implemented to ensure only a modern, sustainable data center could locate in Lee County.

While many have expressed concerns about the impact of data centers on local communities, this project as planned is an excellent example of responsible data center development. The power for this project’s 90 MW IT load will be served by a local power utility, with no on-site generation allowed, and certainly no plans or desire for any kind of fracking. And they will be responsible for paying for their own power, and all the infrastructure required to provide it, protecting our local ratepayers. Once operational, their daily water and sewer needs – the equivalent to only 3-4 households – will be served by TriRiver Water, with the water table remaining untouched. And landscaping, setbacks, and forward-thinking facility design will make sure that any sound created by its operation will be below the thresholds in our development standards.

I invite you to look at PointOne’s announcement about the project for more details, to reach out to them with any questions you may have at community@pointonecorp.com, and to learn a bit more about why we think this is a positive for Sanford and Lee County. The project is expected to begin construction later this year, first accepting customers in early 2028.”

June 8, 2026

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