Memphis

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (2 resident reports, 2026-05-07 → 2026-06-10) · ZIP demographics: 73.1% Black, pop 39,162 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Shelby (roughly 54% Black — verify at census.gov/quickfacts/shelbycountytennessee) Status: No data center confirmed inside 38118. One operating facility sits in the immediately adjacent ZIP (38115). Resident reports for 38118 itself are unverified by public record.

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

• ZIP 38118 covers Oakhaven, Parkway Village and the industrial belt southeast of Memphis International Airport — one of the densest freight/warehouse corridors in the country, adjacent to the FedEx superhub.
• No data center with a 38118 address was found as of 2026-08-02.
• The Connect Data Centers (developed by Oppidan) facility at 3900 S. Mendenhall Rd is in ZIP 38115, the ZIP directly east of 38118. It is ~90,000 sq ft with ~10 MW commissioned and is operating.
• The xAI/SpaceXAI Colossus complex is on the opposite (west/southwest) side of the city, in 38109 — roughly 12–15 miles away. Its air-permit decisions are made by the same county body that governs 38118.
• The two resident reports on this ZIP are Resident-reported only — no public source found as of 2026-08-02 for a data center project sited in 38118.
• Why this ZIP is a live risk anyway: 38118 has abundant heavy-industrial and warehouse-zoned land, existing high-capacity power, and fiber along the airport corridor. Memphis has no adopted data-center zoning ordinance as of 2026-08-02. That combination is exactly what draws siting.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

Inside 38118: Not found as of 2026-08-02. No proposed, approved, under-construction or operating data center with a 38118 address surfaced in trade databases, local news, or publicly reachable Memphis/Shelby County records.

Nearest facilities:

Sources: datacentermap — Connect Memphis, datacenterHawk, DCD — Oppidan files for 99,000 sq ft data center in Memphis, Action News 5 — "Another AI data center coming to Memphis, sources say" (2026-01-14) — accessed 2026-08-02.

Note: the modular AI data center reported by Action News 5 in January 2026 has no publicly confirmed address. If it lands in the airport/Oakhaven industrial belt it would be in or adjacent to 38118. This is the single most important open question for this ZIP. Ask Planning & Development directly (Section 8).

The border — where it sits

• 38118 is 73.1% Black, notably higher than Shelby County overall (~54%). It sits southeast of the airport, between the FedEx hub and the Nonconnah Creek corridor.
• The confirmed Connect facility in 38115 sits in a commercial/industrial strip on S. Mendenhall, immediately across the ZIP line. At ~10 MW it is a conventional colocation facility, not a hyperscale AI campus — a fundamentally different scale of impact from the Boxtown sites.
• No distance-to-homes/schools measurement for a 38118 data center exists because no facility in 38118 is confirmed.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

Specific to 38118: Not found as of 2026-08-02. No rezoning case, special use permit, or air permit notice for a data center at a 38118 address was located.

County/city proceedings that govern this ZIP:

Sources: TechCrunch, Local Memphis, Daily Memphian — accessed 2026-08-02.

Where notices appear: Memphis Land Use Control Board and Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning & Development agendas, and Memphis City Council agendas at memphistn.gov/city-council (posted at least 48 hours ahead). Air permit public notices appear via the Shelby County Health Department.

3. Power

• No data-center substation or large-load interconnection specific to 38118 was found as of 2026-08-02.
• MLGW serves 38118 for electric, gas and water. MLGW is building substations for the xAI load in the riverport corridor and recovering the cost through rebates to the company until it takes ownership — a cost carried across the whole MLGW rate base. (MLGW xAI Update, 2025-05-05, accessed 2026-08-02)
• TVA approved an additional 150 MW for the southwest Memphis site in February 2026 (~300 MW total there), and is developing a proposed data-center rate class across its seven-state territory. TVA reviews any single load of 100 MW or more. (WREG; WPLN, accessed 2026-08-02)
• Rate impact: ThinkTennessee (July 2026) found residential bills in Tennessee areas hosting data centers rose 3.2% from 2023 to 2024 while commercial bills there fell 0.2%. Data-center consumption across the TVA region grew from 1.27 million MWh in 2020 to 9.16 million MWh in 2025. (Nashville Banner; Axios Nashville, accessed 2026-08-02)
• On-site generation: no gas turbines or on-site generation permits for 38118 were found as of 2026-08-02.

4. Water & Drought

• 38118 drinking water is Memphis Sand aquifer water delivered by MLGW.
• The Connect facility in 38115 at ~10 MW is a conventional colocation site; no water withdrawal permit or cooling-water figure for it was found as of 2026-08-02.
• Aquifer risk framing is city-wide: Protect Our Aquifer's concern is arsenic drawdown from the shallow aquifer near heavily pumped wellfields. (protectouraquifer.org, accessed 2026-08-02)
• 38118 sits along the Nonconnah Creek corridor. Any large new cooling load or discharge here would go through TDEC and MLGW/Memphis wastewater review — ask for those files if a project is announced.
• Drought: as of 2026-07-07, ~45% of Tennessee was in active drought (31.9% D1, 13.1% D2). County-level status for Shelby was not confirmable from a reachable source; check droughtmonitor.unl.edu. (PlantMaps, accessed 2026-08-02)

5. Population & Who Lives Here

• ZIP 38118: 73.1% Black; population 39,162 (Census ACS 2023). This is the most demographically mixed of the three Memphis ZIPs in this study, with a substantial and growing Latino population in Parkway Village and Oakhaven.
• 38118 is a freight-burden ZIP: it borders Memphis International Airport and the FedEx superhub, with heavy truck traffic on Lamar Ave (US-78), Getwell, Airways and Winchester. Diesel particulate and aircraft emissions are the dominant existing exposures here — a different profile from the industrial/refinery burden in 38109.
• County-level health context: Shelby County exceeds national smog limits and received an "F" for ozone (American Lung Association, 2024); Memphis ranked 15th most challenging U.S. city for asthma (AAFA, 2024). (Capital B News, accessed 2026-08-02)
• No 38118-specific asthma or ER-visit figure was found as of 2026-08-02.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

• No PILOT, abatement or incentive tied to a 38118 data center was found as of 2026-08-02.
• Shelby County's incentive machinery: EDGE plus eight other PILOT-granting boards; Memphis and Shelby County grant roughly $71M/year in combined tax breaks. Warehouse and logistics PILOTs are common in this corridor. (EDGE; Shelby County PILOT; FOX13 Investigates, accessed 2026-08-02)
• If a data center is proposed here, the PILOT file is public — see Section 8 for how to request it, and ask specifically for the jobs commitment and clawback provisions. Data centers typically produce far fewer permanent jobs per dollar of abatement than warehouse or manufacturing projects.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

• No organized 38118-specific data-center opposition was found as of 2026-08-02, because no project has been publicly proposed there.
• Memphis-wide organizations active on data centers: Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) (president KeShaun Pearson), Young, Gifted & Green, Protect Our Aquifer, Southern Environmental Law Center.
• Newsrooms covering Memphis data centers: Daily Memphian, Commercial Appeal, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism, Tri-State Defender, Memphis Flyer, WREG, Action News 5 (WMC), FOX13, Local Memphis (WATN), Tennessee Lookout.
• Regional precedent worth knowing: in DeSoto County, MS just south of here, Olive Branch denied a rezoning for a proposed data center — evidence that local bodies in this metro do sometimes say no. (WREG, accessed 2026-08-02)

8. Find Out For Yourself

Zoning — the first door for this ZIP

Memphis-Shelby County Division of Planning & Development / Land Use Control Board

• Start at memphistn.gov and shelbycountytn.gov
• Ask: "Are there any pending or approved applications in ZIP 38118 for a data center, computing facility, telecommunications facility, or heavy industrial use — including under a different project name?"

Memphis City Hall / City Council — 125 N. Main St., Room 514, Memphis, TN 38103 · (901) 636-6786

• Agendas, minutes, livestream: memphistn.gov/city-council. Meetings in Council Chambers, lobby floor of City Hall. Agendas posted at least 48 hours in advance.
• Your council member: District 3 covers Whitehaven, Oakhaven and parts of Hickory Hill and is represented by Pearl Eva Walker (elected October 2023). Confirm your own district on the Shelby County districts map.

Air permits

Shelby County Health Department, Pollution Control Section

• 1826 Sycamore View Rd, Memphis, TN 38134 · Phone (901) 222-9599 · Fax (901) 222-9550
• shelbytnhealth.com/170/Air-Pollution-Control · Public records: shelbytnhealth.com/623
• Memphis & Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board: shelbytnhealth.com/675 · contact listed in county documents: Kasia Smith-Alexander, Bureau Director, Environmental Health Bureau — kasia.alexander@shelbycountytn.gov

County, utility, incentives

• Shelby County Board of Commissioners — shelbycountytn.gov
• MLGW — mlgw.com — board agendas, large-load service requests
• EDGE — edgemem.com — PILOT applications, term sheets, compliance reports
• TVA — tva.com — large-load agreements, proposed data-center rate class

Six questions worth asking on the phone

1. Planning & Development: Is there any pending site plan, rezoning, or special use permit in 38118 for a data center or "computing facility"? What about applications filed under an LLC with no obvious name?
2. Planning & Development: Under current Memphis zoning, can a data center be built by right on industrially-zoned land in 38118 with no public hearing? (This is the key question — if the answer is yes, there may never be a hearing to attend.)
3. Action News 5 / Daily Memphian tip lines: Where is the 38,500 sq ft, 9 MW modular AI data center reported in January 2026 actually being built?
4. MLGW: Has any customer requested new large-load electric service (over 10 MW) at an address in 38118 or 38115?
5. Health Department: Are there any pending air permit applications — including for emergency backup generators — at addresses in 38118?
6. EDGE: Has any PILOT been applied for or approved in 38118 for a data-center or computing project, and what is the jobs commitment?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

• There is no confirmed data center in 38118 today. The nearest one, in 38115 on S. Mendenhall, is a modest ~10 MW colocation facility — a fundamentally smaller footprint than the AI campuses in 38109.
• The real exposure here is existing, not new: 38118 already carries a heavy diesel and freight burden from the airport, the FedEx superhub, and the Lamar Ave truck corridor. That is the dominant air-quality factor.
• The risk that is genuinely open is siting. This corridor has industrial zoning, existing power capacity, and fiber. Memphis has not adopted data-center zoning rules — no setbacks from homes or schools, no noise limits, no restrictions on on-site gas generation of the kind Nashville adopted on 2026-07-21. Until it does, a project could appear here with limited public process.
• Bills. MLGW ratepayers carry substation cost recovery for loads elsewhere in the county; statewide, residential bills rose faster in data-center host areas.
• What to verify before deciding: the zoning answer (by right or not), the location of the unannounced modular AI facility, and whether Memphis passes an ordinance.

10. Sources

All accessed 2026-08-02.

1. datacentermap — Connect Memphis, 3900 S Mendenhall Rd — https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/tennessee/memphis/connect-memphis/
2. datacenterHawk — Connect Data Centers, 3900 S Mendenhall Road — https://datacenterhawk.com/marketplace/providers/connect-data-centers/3900-s-mendenhall-road/1083562
3. DCD — "Oppidan files for 99,000 square foot data center in Memphis, Tennessee" — https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/oppidan-files-for-99000-square-foot-data-center-in-memphis-tennessee/
4. DCD — 3900 S. Mendenhall Road tag — https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/tags/3900-s-mendenhall-road/
5. datacentermap — Memphis facilities list — https://www.datacentermap.com/usa/tennessee/memphis/
6. Action News 5 — "Another AI data center coming to Memphis, sources say" (2026-01-14) — https://www.actionnews5.com/2026/01/14/another-ai-data-center-coming-memphis-sources-say/
7. Action News 5 — "New AI Data Center coming to Memphis" (2025-05-08) — https://www.actionnews5.com/2025/05/08/new-ai-data-center-coming-memphis/
8. Daily Memphian — Memphis City Council discusses data center zoning — https://dailymemphian.com/article/64540/memphis-city-council-zoning-changes-data-centers
9. TechCrunch — xAI gets permits for 15 natural gas generators (2025-07-03) — https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/03/xai-gets-permits-for-15-natural-gas-generators-at-memphis-data-center
10. Local Memphis — SELC files appeal with pollution board — https://www.localmemphis.com/article/news/local/selc-files-appeal-with-pollution-board-xai-permits/522-5a44840b-afc5-4f14-91f4-9df32e062820
11. WREG — "Olive Branch denies DeSoto County rezoning over proposed data center" — https://wreg.com/news/desoto-county-to-discuss-proposed-data-center/
12. WREG — TVA OKs additional 150 MW — https://wreg.com/news/local/tva-oks-additional-150-mw-of-electricity-for-xai-memphis-data-center/
13. MLGW — xAI Update (2025-05-05 PDF) — https://www.mlgw.com/images/content/files/pdf/new/5-5-25%20xAI%20Update.pdf
14. WPLN — "What DC BLOX's murky plans in Nashville signal for electricity costs, environmental impacts" — https://wpln.org/post/what-dc-bloxs-murky-plans-in-nashville-signal-for-electricity-costs-environmental-impacts/
15. Nashville Banner — "Data centers drive up electricity costs for Tennessee residents" (2026-07-07) — https://nashvillebanner.com/2026/07/07/tennessee-data-centers-electricity-costs-report/
16. Axios Nashville — "Data center electricity use has skyrocketed in Tennessee and beyond" (2026-07-07) — https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2026/07/07/data-center-electricity-demand-increase-policy
17. Protect Our Aquifer — xAI Supercomputer — https://www.protectouraquifer.org/issues/xai-supercomputer
18. Capital B News — "We Deserve to Breathe Clean Air" — https://capitalbnews.org/we-deserve-to-breathe-clean-air-memphis-residents-take-on-elon-musks-xai/
19. EDGE — Tax Incentives — https://edgemem.com/tax-incentives/
20. Shelby County — PILOT Program — https://www.shelbycountytn.gov/308/PILOT-Program
21. FOX13 Investigates — $71M in annual tax breaks — https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/fox13-investigates-memphis-shelby-county-give-combined-71m-in-tax-breaks-annually-to-companies/article_b4531a62-0652-11ef-a852-2326edf06cd0.html
22. Shelby County Health Dept — Air Pollution Control — https://www.shelbytnhealth.com/170/Air-Pollution-Control
23. Shelby County Health Dept — Air Pollution Control Board — https://www.shelbytnhealth.com/675/Air-Pollution-Control-Board
24. Shelby County Health Dept — Public records requests — https://www.shelbytnhealth.com/623/Air-Pollution-Control-Public-Records-Req
25. Shelby County Health Dept — Pollution Control Section form (address/phone) — https://shelbytnhealth.com/DocumentCenter/View/403/APCV20IN
26. City of Memphis — City Council — https://memphistn.gov/city-council
27. Daily Memphian — "Five compete for open City Council District 3 seat" (District 3 = Whitehaven, Oakhaven, parts of Hickory Hill) — https://dailymemphian.com/article/38369/memphis-city-council-district-3
28. Shelby County districts map — https://gis.shelbycountytn.gov/regis/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6ef9c4e92f754c0aa1dc8fb0146a2f32
29. U.S. Drought Monitor — Tennessee — https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TN
30. PlantMaps — Tennessee current drought conditions (2026-07-07) — https://www.plantmaps.com/en/us/state/tennessee/current-drought-conditions