Gallup residents weigh proposed data center at Tradeport site

Residents filled the Gallup City Council chambers on April 28 as the city began weighing a proposed data center that could redraw the industrial future of the Gallup TradePort site off Carbon Coal Road, just north of Mentmore. The project is being advanced by Teraplex, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, and co-founder Greg Thompson said the location could eventually draw major technology companies such as Oracle, Meta, Amazon or Microsoft.

The most immediate decision before council was not whether Gallup wants a data center in the abstract, but what the city is willing to commit to make one work. Source New Mexico reported that council voted 4-1 to delay action on a wastewater agreement tied to a proposed 330-acre campus. That agreement would send nearly 110 million gallons of wastewater a year to the project, a figure that puts infrastructure, capacity and long-term operating costs at the center of the debate.

The public response at the April 28 meeting made clear that residents see the project as a civic tradeoff, not just a private development proposal. Brandy Laughter and Toni Pinedo were among those who spoke out, and the turnout reflected growing scrutiny of how much water, power and municipal support a large-scale data center would require. Gallup officials are being asked to decide whether the city should help secure a site for a high-demand industrial use, and whether nearby neighborhoods will see benefits that justify the added strain.

That tension sits on top of years of TradePort planning. Greater Gallup Economic Development Corporation held roundtables on the broader project in 2024, and McKinley County commissioners approved their portion of the Joint Powers Agreement on July 14, 2025. Gallup Land Partners says the Gallup-McKinley TradePort Authority was established in 2025 to coordinate the public-private coalition, and state legislative materials describe the authority as a five-member board with two city appointees, two county appointees and one jointly appointed member.

The site’s location at the Gallup Energy Logistics Park, near Interstate 40 and U.S. Highway 491, helps explain why it is being pitched for heavy industry. But the same setting raises the stakes for land use, road access and utility planning, especially as county road work on Carbon Coal Road has already been affected by rising material costs.

State water and energy officials have also flagged the larger challenge. New Mexico legislative materials say water use for data centers depends heavily on the cooling method and energy source, and warn that large facilities can force utilities to build new generation and transmission while affecting rates for other customers. For Gallup, the question now is whether the promise of a marquee industrial tenant outweighs the public cost of the water, power and permitting decisions still ahead.