Developer pitches 'Apollo' data center for Marlboro County, pledges community fund and jobs

Developer representatives presented a proposed “Apollo” data center to Marlboro County residents in Bennettsville, describing the project’s scale, community benefits and job opportunities while answering questions about power, water and health impacts.

The presentation opened with the county’s economic development director introducing two developers and noting the meeting’s purpose was transparency and public questions. A lead presenter traced a personal trajectory from wildlife biology and nonprofit work to building a for‑profit data center company founded on the principle that “when communities thrive, everything around them thrives too.”

The presenters framed data centers as physical facilities that store and process digital information — not an intangible “cloud” — and said rising demand for computing, especially for artificial intelligence, is driving new projects.

The technical presenter emphasized that developers differ and described sustainability-oriented design choices such as living green walls and closed‑loop water systems. He said responsible developers should “bring your own power” rather than rely on municipal utilities and stressed efforts to reduce energy use.

On local economic impact, the presenters said the business model includes allocating 2% of project costs for community impact projects. “One of our developments would see sort of $600,000,000 brought in. That’s about $12,000,000 going back into the community just in impact projects,” the technical presenter said.

They also described job categories the project could create, noting that many technical roles require bachelor’s degrees or certifications and that senior technical leadership typically requires 10–20 years of experience. Salary figures in the transcript are fragmented; presenters indicated senior technical pay appears to be on the order of roughly $140,000 to $220,000.

During the public‑question portion, at least one resident raised health concerns, saying, “Heart condition is gonna get worse. It’s gonna cause people that are pregnant… to have health issues,” and urging care in evaluating impacts. The county’s economic development director reiterated the meeting’s purpose was to provide information and transparency about what is in the pipeline.

Another attendee pushed back on what they called misinformation about data centers, drawing a distinction between legitimate data centers and “data miners” whose operations they said simply “dump their stuff for a while, make as much money as they possibly can, and run.” That resident argued Marlboro County officials had worked to attract prior data center investment and urged the community to weigh the presenters’ facts.

No formal action or vote was taken during the meeting; presenters and county staff indicated the session would continue with questions and answers and did not announce a decision timetable.

Next steps: presenters opened the floor to additional questions and indicated the conversation would continue; county staff encouraged residents to raise specific concerns for follow-up.