During comments Tuesday about the process leading through the recent zoning approval for a data center on Burkhalter Road, City Manager Charles Penny asserted that Statesboro officials will not consider the further step of approving a special use permit until after they know who the end-user will be. A company named 4AM Development LLC, which owns the 26.94-acre site, successfully sought the zoning change from "R-4" high-density residential to "O" for office. But along the way, 4AM Development's owners, Bobby Bagwell of Augusta and Charles C. Way of Savannah, mainly residential developers until now, acknowledged that they personally have neither the cash nor the expertise to build the data center. According to a fiscal impact study they sought, the project could involve a $1.2 billion capital investment over 10 years. As recently as Aug. 18 when the council voted 3-2, including the mayor's tiebreaker, to approve the rezoning, Way said the developers were "zoning it speculatively, but there is zero chance that they're going to build this speculatively." At an earlier hearing, he said the developers had been talking with a couple of potential operating companies and intended to select one after the zoning was approved. That selection will have to happen, and be known to the mayor and council, before a decision is made about the special use permit, Penny said in the midst of his remarks during Tuesday's 9 a.m. regular council meeting. "Now that the land use has been…
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