Bitmain and Rockdale’s spectacularly brightening economic prospects were informational agenda items for the city council Monday.
Kara Clore, executive director of the Rockdale Municipal Development District (MDD) told council members Bitmain’s planned business at the former Alcoa smelter will be the largest data center of its kind in the world.
LIVE AT HOME—That means it will be the largest devoted to “mining bit-coins,” a topic explored in great detail by consultant Dustin Haisler in a presentation to the council.
There was more positive news. Dr. John M. Weed III, MDD president, praised Bit-main’s community involvement ethic as the giant China-based company prepares to become a corporate neighbor.
“They are very positive about encouraging their employees to live in Rockdale,” Dr. Weed said.
“Of course, obviously the problem is that we’ve got to have houses for them to live in,” he added.
He said Bitmain plans to work with re-training programs and with schools.
While Bitmain has not yet announced any timetable for its repurposing of the former smelter, Dr. Weed told the council Monday he expected the repurposing work to be complete by March (or sometime in the spring) of next year and the data mining to begin.”
GOOD FIT—Dr. Weed said there’s no mystery why Bitmain picked the site near Rockdale.
“We (the MDD) were shown a site and it was long buildings with access to lots of power. Well, guess what? That’s exactly what you’ve got out at Alcoa, 12 long buildings (former potrooms), lots of offices and access to the largest source of electricity in Texas.”
“And that’s without Luminant,” he added.
The council also heard a proposal concerning the former City Hall and discussed a Sumuel Park splash pad.
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