The ground for North Carolina's next data centers.
FOUND finds land for data-center buyers across North Carolina and reads it against the public record for local approvals, power, neighbors, and usable ground, before anyone spends on diligence.
Contours of the Uwharrie region, North Carolina, from USGS 3DEP elevation data.
What we source
Data-center sites first, and the same method for land, residential tracts, and infill lots. Each search ends with a short list you can act on.
- Data-center sitesWe find land across North Carolina, read everything the public record says about it, and tell you which sites deserve your engineers' time and which do not.
- Land and acreageGross acres sell land. Usable acres build projects. We find tracts that match your use and tell you the difference before you drive out.
- Residential tractsA builder's first question about land is how many homes it can hold. We answer on paper, show every deduction, and say which number is limiting the count.
- Infill lotsAn infill lot is a lot inside an established neighborhood. The question is never just its size. It is whether the house, the driveway, the yard, and the pool all fit under the rules that apply.
- Parcel briefAlready have a site in mind? We write it up so a busy reader sees the deciding facts first and knows exactly what is still open.
- Retained sourcingGood sites surface on their own schedule, and local rules change between board meetings. A retained search watches both.
What we check on every site
Eight layers from the public record. Each one states where the record stops and a utility, planner, or surveyor takes over.
- Parcels and boundariesEvery conclusion about a site depends on one earlier question: which land is this? We settle that before anything else.
- Power and substationsWe measure a tract's relationship to high-voltage infrastructure from its boundary, identify the utility, and write down what the utility must answer.
- FiberPublic records show who reports service in an area. They do not show a route to your gate, or whether two providers share the same trench.
- Water and sewerCooling needs water, homes need sewer or septic, and fire protection needs pressure. Public records tell us who might serve a site. The provider tells you whether it will.
- Zoning and moratoriumsBefore asking what a district allows, we confirm which government regulates the land. Then we read the ordinance, not just the map.
- Flood, wetlands, soilsWe measure what the maps take off the top, and whether the land that remains is still in one piece.
- Access and roadsWe read what the state publishes about the roads around a tract, and we separate that from the legal question of access.
- Environmental recordsWe search the federal and state registries for what has been recorded on and near a tract, and we keep 'nearby' and 'on the parcel' apart.
How a search runs
Requirements in, a short list out, and the open questions marked on every site.
Requirements
Acreage, counties, load, water, access, and timeline. We write them down and send them back so we agree on the target.
Discovery and screening
We search official parcel records and public sources across the counties you name. Candidates that fail a hard requirement drop out.
Verification and handoff
You get a short list with what the record confirms and what still needs a call. Transactions run through a licensed North Carolina real estate brokerage.
How data-center land actually gets chosen
Guides written from the work: who buys, what stops a site, and what the public record can and cannot tell you.
- Who buys data-center land, and what each buyer needsA site that suits one kind of buyer can be wrong for another. The difference is what the buyer plans to do after closing.
- How to read a data-center moratoriumAcross North Carolina, counties and towns have paused new data centers while they write rules. For a site, the question is never only whether a pause exists. It is how long, how wide, and what comes after.
- The neighbors decide more sites than the zoning mapWhen a data-center proposal fails in North Carolina, the record usually shows the same thing: homes nearby, and residents who organized. We read for that before anything else about the land.
- A substation next door is not powerEvery listing for data-center land mentions the substation down the road. The map is the easy part. The answer that matters comes from the utility, in writing.
- What makes land attractive to a data-center buyerBuyers do not pay for acres. They pay for acres they can use, near power they can get, in a county that will approve them. Here is how to see your land the way a buyer does.
- When a warehouse is a data-center siteNot every data center starts as a field. A large industrial building on the right ground can reach operation sooner, because much of the hard part is already done.
North Carolina, county by county
Parcel records, zoning, and utility territory change at every county line. We read them one county at a time, where the project needs them.
Public datasets, free to cite
- Land per MWHow much land do data-center campuses actually take per megawatt?
- North Carolina projectsData centers in North Carolina: the announced projects, in one table
- North Carolina moratoriumsWhere North Carolina has paused data centers
The marked sheet is the terrain behind this page: the Uwharrie region, drawn from USGS elevation data.
Land math, in the open
Free calculators for the first questions on any site. Every formula is on the page.
- Data center land calculatorHow much land does a data center need?
- Usable acreage calculatorGross acres, minus what you cannot use
- Lots per acre calculatorHow many lots could this tract hold?
- Price per acre calculatorPrice per acre, both directions
- Acreage converterAcres, square feet, hectares, square miles
Looking for a site
Send the load, acreage, and counties. We reply with how we would run the search.
Start a site searchOwn a large tract in North Carolina
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