RAYVILLE, La. (WVUE) – A rural Louisiana parish known for farming, small towns and quiet roads is now at the center of one of the largest artificial intelligence infrastructure projects in the world.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is building a massive data center in Holly Ridge, a Richland Parish community about 260 miles northwest of New Orleans. The project is expected to cost $27 billion and help power Meta’s artificial intelligence ambitions.
Many people born and raised in towns like Rayville, Dunn, and Holly Ridge are used to a slower pace of life.
“I’m not for change. I don’t change my furniture around or nothing. I stay just like it is,” said 81-year-old Joyce Piercy.
“We’ve been a simple farming community. It’s a great place to raise your kids. It’s quiet,” said Emmett “Lee” Brown.
You won’t find much quiet in certain parts of Richland Parish anymore.
Throughout the rural parish in northern Louisiana, there seem to be construction zones along all the major roads. Entergy Louisiana is building power infrastructure to support the data center, including two gas-fired power plants at its Franklin Farms Power Station project in Holly Ridge.
“This is the biggest customer project that Entergy Louisiana has ever undertaken,” said Troy Heytens, vice president of hyper scale execution at Entergy Louisiana. “The only thing that is a similar scale that we’ve done in the past is building brand new nuclear power plants.”
Heytens said the power plant is expected to be online by the end of 2028. Meta’s Hyperion data center is expected to be operational by 2030.
“This site that we’re on in Richland Parish is about 5-6 miles long and a mile wide, including both the Entergy facility as well as the data center that’s just south of us,” Heytens said.
Meta announced it will build a 4 million square foot data center in Richland Parish.(Source: Meta)
Meta did not allow Fox 8 access to its construction site. Entergy officials said the company’s work is moving quickly because the data center needs a large amount of power on a fast timeline.
“The new data center customer needs a large amount of power to power their AI data center south of here,” Heytens said. “Just as important as how much power that they’re using, is their need for speed.”
“When Meta first approached Entergy Louisiana, speed was a major consideration. So, we had to develop innovative approaches of how we could build these facilities quickly to serve the timeline that they’re on.”
Entergy said construction started in earnest at the beginning of 2026.
“Four months ago this was a dirt pile with some access roads. That’s all that was here,” Heytens said.
One part of the site is the skeleton of what will be the largest transmission substation Entergy Louisiana has ever built. When it comes online, which is expected to be at the end of this year, Heytens says its output will be the equivalent of delivering power to over one million homes.
In all, Entergy will build 10 new power plants connected to the project: six in Richland Parish, three in Pointe Coupee Parish and one in St. Charles Parish.
Heytens said Meta will cover the construction cost, not Entergy ratepayers.
And because the energy from the new power plants is supposed to feed Louisiana’s overall grid, Heytens claims Entergy customers will save money over the span of the twenty-year agreement between Meta and Entergy. Some of those savings, Heytens says, will be seen in monthly customer electric bills.
“I think the biggest thing about the project here in Richland Parish is Entergy Louisiana customers are going to see substantial benefits in their bills from the investments here in Richland Parish,” Heytens said. “What I mean by that is over $2.5 billion dollars of costs that would otherwise be bore by Entergy Louisiana will be funded by Meta as part of their agreement for this data center.”
FILE – The Meta logo is seen at the Vivatech show in Paris, France, June 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)(Thibault Camus | AP)
State leaders are boasting about the project’s economic impact, including more than $2 billion in property taxes, $200 million for local road and water infrastructure and more than 6,500 construction jobs.
Those numbers are probably easier to digest at Big John’s Steak and Seafood. For $12.99, you can eat all you want at the buffet in Rayville.
“This is the busiest it’s ever been. I’ll go ahead and tell you that it is. You know, to find parking and all that can be tough now,” owner Jesse Johns said.
Johns has been running the restaurant for almost 25 years. Before the project, the restaurant served about 200 customers a day. Now, Johns said it serves closer to 300. Johns estimates his sales are up 30 percent.
Sometimes, though, more money means more problems.
“Well, a bit more problems, you know, just trying to find help. Like I say, I just struggle through it, we make it every day,” said Johns.
Help wanted signs hang outside of the restaurant. Few locals could’ve predicted Richland Parish would attract something like Meta’s data center. Richland Parish Tax Assessor Emmett “Lee” Brown said he never expected the parish to land a project like Meta’s data center.
“I just didn’t think we were going to get that,” Brown said. “I worked on car manufacturers, steel mills, I’ve worked on everything that you can imagine.”
Brown said after state tax incentives are factored in, Meta is expected to pay Richland Parish $30 million in property tax this year. He said the parish collected $22 million in total property taxes last year.
There’s also a spike in sales tax generated and population. In a parish of about 20,000, Brown says there are now at least 4,000 extra people living and working here. That kind of growth can come with growing pains, such as rising rents.
“There’s bumps and bruises and we’re feeling them,” Brown said. “A rental that might’ve been $600-$700/month is now $2,500/month. So, it’s not affordable for the people that were here, and I hate that. It hurts my heart.”
Trucks pass by the site of Meta’s Richland Parish Data Center in Holly Ridge, La., Monday, Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Sophie Bates)(Sophie Bates | AP)
Joyce Piercy, 81, said the growth has made life harder for some longtime residents.
“When Meta came in, they moved some of the folks out and put in the trailer parks. Well, they had to find a place to go and some of them couldn’t afford that. So I don’t know what happened to them,” Joyce Piercy said.
Piercy said two of her great-grandsons are now working at sites connected to the data center, but the changes are coming fast.
“Well, it’s helping the community, but it’s making it rough for us old folks, trying to drive in all that traffic,” Piercy said. “I’m not used to that. I’m just used to plain old country.”
It’s hard to deny the economic benefits, but there are questions about the environmental impacts of data centers like the one Meta is building.
“There’s a concern about the water,” Brown said. “There’s been concern about the price of the energy to the consumers that are already here. We’ve been assured by the Public Service Commission that the rate increases will not happen.”
The Alliance for Affordable Energy, a utility watchdog and advocacy group, has scrutinized the project and Entergy’s push to move quickly.
“We are concerned that the kinds of promises that Entergy and Meta have made so far will not protect ratepayers for the coming decades,” said Logan Burke, the group’s executive director.
Burke said Entergy Louisiana successfully lobbied members of the Louisiana Public Service Commission to allow it to bypass normal procedures and fast-track a request to build the project’s seven final power plants. Burke says customers should be concerned about how quickly Entergy is moving.
“The concern here is they’re either overpaying for speed, which we’ll all be on the hook for in the long run, or they won’t be able to make these deadlines, this speed deadline, but the (public service) commission will have approved something and locked us all into that risk,” Burke said.
Burke says she worries that if Meta doesn’t follow through on its plans to remain in Richland Parish, rate payers could be stuck with the cost of the power plants and their maintenance.
Meta announced it will build a 4 million square foot data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana.(Source: Meta)
In other parts of the country, the rapid rise of data centers has prompted political fights at the local and state levels. Earlier this spring, two congressional democrats introduced a bill seeking a moratorium on data center construction until national safety, environmental, and labor standards are established.
“These slowdowns and moratoria are happening because communities are learning about the risks and the threats, not just to their utility bills, but to their air, their water and their own employment,” Burke said.
In Richland parish, where there was once a premium placed on taking your time, there’s a feeling that Meta’s need for speed is inevitable.
“It’s coming and we just got to be prepared,” said tax assessor Lee Brown.
Meta responded to residents’ concerns about rising rents and displacement. In a statement, Meta says the land for its “Hyperion” data center was not designated as residential. Meta echoed some of the major economic benefits that state and local leaders have highlighted.
“We’re proud to call Richland Parish home, and we are committed to being a good neighbor and investing in this community. Our data center will represent an investment of more than $10 billion and support over 500 operational jobs and over 5,000 construction jobs at peak. We make a concerted effort to source labor and materials locally and provide substantial contributions directly to the community,” Meta said in its statement.
Meta’s Hyperion data center is expected to be operational by 2030.
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