Sell or ground-lease to a datacenter developer in Texas

Texas has become the second-largest US datacenter market after Northern Virginia, with explosive growth concentrated in Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin (especially in suburbs like Round Rock and Pflugerville), San Antonio, and parts of Houston. AI compute demand, ERCOT's competitive wholesale power prices, and Texas's pro-development zoning environment have combined to make Texas the hottest datacenter expansion market in the US.

What Texas datacenter land sells for in 2026

• DFW core (Plano, Frisco, Richardson) — $50,000-$200,000 per acre for prime parcels with substation and fiber proximity
• DFW exurbs (Wise, Denton, Ellis) — $20,000-$80,000 per acre
• Austin metro (Round Rock, Pflugerville, Hutto) — $50,000-$150,000 per acre
• San Antonio metro (Bulverde, Boerne) — $20,000-$60,000 per acre
• Houston metro (Katy, Conroe, Fulshear) — $30,000-$100,000 per acre

Ground leases (50-99 years) are also common, paying roughly 5-8% of land value annually. A $40,000/acre prime DFW parcel might ground-lease at $2,500-$3,500/acre/year on a 99-year term.

What hyperscalers and colocators want

Site selectors at Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Equinix, Digital Realty, QTS, and Stack are looking for:

1. 50-500 contiguous acres — the sweet spot for a single campus
2. Substation capacity of 100+ MW within 5 km — interconnect cost dominates project economics
3. Dark fiber within 2 miles — multiple-carrier fiber preferred
4. Industrial or rezonable zoning — Texas counties vary in how datacenter-friendly they are
5. Reliable water source — for evaporative cooling (though dry-cooling is increasingly common)
6. Existing or available tax abatements — Texas has Chapter 313 historical incentives plus county-level abatements

The Landholder assessment evaluates substation distance + ISO market + state-specific factors automatically.

Why Texas vs other markets

Texas advantages:

• ERCOT is a deregulated, competitive wholesale market — hyperscalers can secure long-term low power prices
• No state income tax on operations
• Pro-development counties — most Texas counties want the tax base + jobs
• Vast available land even in metro fringe areas

Texas disadvantages:

• ERCOT reliability concerns — winter and summer scarcity events spook some operators
• Water constraints in some West Texas counties
• Permit timeline variance — depends heavily on the specific county

Top Texas datacenter corridors

Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: the highest-volume Texas market. Plano, Richardson, and Frisco are nearly built out at high prices; emerging activity in Wise County, Denton County, and Tarrant County exurbs.

Austin metro: massive expansion from Apple, Tesla, and AI startups. Suburbs like Pflugerville, Round Rock, Manor, and Bastrop are seeing aggressive site acquisition.

San Antonio: growing as a Tier-2 market with Microsoft, Google, and Stack all active. Bulverde and Boerne see scouts.

Houston: more energy-and-industrial focused; less hyperscale than DFW or Austin, but Katy and northern suburbs see colocation activity.

How to attract scouts

Datacenter site selectors mostly work through brokers (CBRE Data Center Solutions, JLL Data Centers, Newmark Data Center Group, Cushman & Wakefield Data Center Advisory) rather than direct landowner outreach. To get on their radar:

1. List your parcel with one or more datacenter-specialty brokers
2. Provide a clean info package: parcel survey, zoning verification, substation distance (from EIA-860), fiber confirmation (call your local ILEC), water availability
3. Consider applying for a Texas Chapter 313 successor program tax abatement before listing — it materially raises offered prices

Next step

Run a free Landholder.com assessment — we'll check substation distance, ISO market, and Texas-specific datacenter signals for your exact parcel.