The March 20, 2026 Groundbreaking
On March 20, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a public-private partnership to redevelop the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant near Piketon, Ohio as the PORTS Technology Campus. Three cabinet secretaries and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son attended the groundbreaking. This was not a press conference. It was a DOE land lease, a named utility partner, and a bilateral sovereign trade framework.
Verified Facts
- 10 GW target capacity for the data center campus (DOE)
- $33.3 billion in Japanese-funded energy generation, 9.2 GW of new natural gas (Statehouse News)
- $4.2 billion transmission buildout funded by SB Energy through AEP Ohio (AEP)
- 5,642 MW of binding data center load contracts already signed with AEP Ohio (AEP Ohio PUCO filing, Feb 2026)
- 3,700 acres of federal land leased to SB Energy affiliate
- $40 million community benefits pledge for schools and medical infrastructure
- Google identified behind a proposed $1 billion data center in adjacent Scioto County
- Jackson County updated zoning code in March 2026 specifically for data centers
Why This Is Not Another Empty Promise
Southern Ohio residents remember previous proposals for the PORTS site that went nowhere. This one is structurally different:
- A signed DOE land lease, not a memorandum of understanding
- A named utility partner (AEP Ohio) with binding contracts filed with the PUCO
- A bilateral sovereign trade agreement between the United States and Japan
- An actual groundbreaking with construction equipment, not just a podium
- A named developer entity (SB Energy) with identified funding sources
What Happens to Land Values
When Loudoun County, Virginia became America's first data center corridor, agricultural land eventually reached over $6 million per acre for entitled parcels. Data center property values increased 78.7% year-over-year in 2025. Data centers now represent 23% of Loudoun County's tax base.
Southern Ohio is not Loudoun County. It is earlier, cheaper, and less certain. But the structural pattern is the same: massive infrastructure investment creates demand for housing, services, logistics, and support that the existing area cannot provide.
Jackson County issued 33 building permits in all of 2024. There are roughly 200 to 300 hotel rooms within 30 miles of Piketon. The housing, hospitality, and commercial infrastructure that tens of thousands of workers need does not exist yet.
Local Market Data
Current Jackson County land prices tell a clear story about where values stand before the corridor reprices them:
- 34 acres of bare farm field on Five Points Road: $450,000 ($13,164/acre), no highway frontage, no fiber, no forest
- 64-acre lakefront property with lodge less than one mile from Five Points Pasture: $2,150,000 ($33,594/acre)
- 50 acres on Beaver Pike: $350,000 ($6,976/acre), generic land
- 7 acres commercial on Keystone Furnace: $600,000 ($85,714/acre)
- 11.6 acres commercial on US Route 23 in Piketon: $525,000 ($45,259/acre)
Five Points Pasture sits at $16,084 per acre (~$39,744/ha) with highway frontage, gigabit fiber, forest, pond, creek, and direct SR-32 corridor access. That is at or below raw-field pricing for the same road, while offering commercial-grade features.
Available: 71.5 Acres at the SR-32/CR-20 Intersection
Five Points Pasture is 71.5 acres at the corner of State Route 32 and County Road 20 in Jackson County. 20 minutes from the PORTS Technology Campus. Spectrum gigabit fiber. 7,000 to 12,000 vehicles per day. 803 feet elevation, 138 feet above the PORTS site. Pre-corridor pricing.
$1,150,000