A legal challenge blocking Shreveport’s proposed Amazon data center at Resilient Technology Park is headed for a First District Court hearing April 20, keeping one of the region’s most anticipated economic development projects in limbo while separate Amazon-related construction moves forward in Caddo and Bossier parishes.
Mooringsport Mayor Tyler Gordon and two Caddo Parish citizens, Michael Craft and Mary Blakemore, filed suit in January against Mayor Tom Arceneaux and the city. The suit seeks judicial review of the City Council’s decision to approve the development after the Shreveport Metropolitan Planning Commission initially blocked it. A special-use permit is required for a data center to operate at Resilient Park.
The 313-acre park off Greenwood Road in west Shreveport, adjacent to Interstate 20, is development-ready and was the site that originally drew Amazon to the region. It is listed as a third campus in the broader $12 billion Amazon investment in northwest Louisiana — but was left out of Gov. Jeff Landry’s Feb. 23 announcement at Shreveport Municipal Auditorium specifically because of the pending litigation.
“It stung a little but it was a light sting because we feel we’ll get there quickly,” Justyn Dixon, president and CEO of North Louisiana Economic Partnership, told The Center Square. Dixon said Resilient Park was the catalyst that brought Amazon to the area. When litigation complicated the west Shreveport site, Dixon’s team quickly identified two alternative locations. “We quickly said, ‘We know you like this site, would you be willing to look at two other sites?'” Dixon said. Amazon agreed, and STACK Infrastructure — a Denver-based development company that will lease the campuses to Amazon — is now moving forward on the Caddo and Bossier parish sites.
Gordon, who has said he does not oppose regional development, filed the suit over concerns about the city’s approval process. “I don’t want people to think that I am trying to stop development in our area,” Gordon told The Center Square.
At stake for Shreveport if the litigation is resolved in the city’s favor: sales tax revenue, construction jobs and a share of what North Louisiana Economic Partnership describes as a transformational regional investment. The multiple-campus structure is a redundancy feature designed to protect Amazon cloud computing operations — each site runs on a separate transmission line so that one campus can continue operating if another goes offline.