# AVAIO Digital Partners AVAIO Digital Partners is the developer of "Project Leo," the hyperscale data center on 145th Street in unincorporated Pulaski County — the largest of the Arkansas data-center sites under investigation. It is headquartered at 107 Elm Street, Suite 501, Stamford, Connecticut, and is the developer of record on every Pulaski County filing in the [[county-pulaski/project-leo-2026-05-22/_overview|Project Leo planning file]]. ## Corporate structure The AVAIO name appears in several related forms in the corpus: - **AVAIO Digital Partners** — the developer of record named on the Pulaski County site plan application and drawings. - **AVAIO Digital Partners II, LLC** — a **Delaware limited liability company**; this is the precise entity the AVAIO ALTA/NSPS survey is **certified to** (alongside [[Arnett Construction Company]], Inc. and the title insurer), per the OCR'd survey ([[AVAIO Project Leo Large Site-Plan Package]]). - **AVAIO Capital LLC** — the affiliated capital entity; AVAIO principals [[Tom Nesel]] and Joe Hubbard correspond from `@avaiocapital.com` addresses, and the construction SWPPP is "Prepared for: ADP Little Rock Data Hub, LLC / AVAIO Capital LLC." - **[[ADP Little Rock Data Hub, LLC]]** — a project SPV ("ADP" for AVAIO Digital Partners) named as operator on the **core-campus** NPDES construction-stormwater permit, sharing AVAIO's Stamford address. - **[[ADP Little Rock Green Compute, LLC]]** — a Delaware SPV at the same Stamford address, the lessee/purchaser of the **northern-expansion** parcels (Sections 13 & 14); see the deed record below. The internal relationships among these entities are not fully spelled out in the corpus, but the shared 107 Elm Street, Stamford address ties the "ADP Little Rock" SPVs and AVAIO Digital Partners II, LLC to AVAIO Digital Partners. ## People - [[Tom Nesel]] — principal, AVAIO Capital; "Owner's Construction Manager" for Project Leo; lead AVAIO voice in the DEQ air pre-permitting threads. - [[Joe Hubbard]] — "Executive VP - Global Design & Delivery" (his title as Responsible Official on the [[ADP Rankin Data Hub Mississippi Air Permit Application|Mississippi Rankin application]]); attended the 10/30/25 DEQ pre-app. - [[Kevin Murphy]] — Vice President; **Incorporator/Organizer and Managing Member of [[ADP Little Rock Data Hub, LLC]]** (AR SoS filing 811548146, produced 2026-06-11); also VP of [[ADP Little Rock Green Compute, LLC]] (signed the Bud Price ground-lease memorandum); Responsible Official on the Leo STAA. - [[Melody Neil]] — "Public Affairs Lead"; author of the [[AVAIO Tier 4 Equivalent Email to the Commerce Secretary|Commerce-Secretary email]]. - Counsel: [[Mark Allison]] ([[Wright Lindsey & Jennings LLP]], Little Rock). Air consultant: [[Trinity Consultants]]. ## Roles in this corpus - **Developer of Project Leo.** AVAIO Digital Partners filed the Project Leo site plan with [[Pulaski County Government]] beginning September 2024 and carried it through the county's [[2024-12 Pulaski County Conditionally Approves the Project Leo Site Plan|conditional approval]] and the [[Project Leo Engineering and Environmental Permits|state and federal environmental permitting]]. Its civil engineer of record is [[Kimley-Horn]]; its environmental consultant is [[Stantec]]. - **Named in the Entergy rate record.** Entergy Arkansas's CEO testimony in the base rate case names "the Avaio data center site in Pulaski County" as one of two data centers said to "provide more than $1.7 billion in savings for EAL customers" — see [[Entergy CEO Direct Testimony]]. - **AVAIO transmission projects in the test-year CWIP.** [[26-001-U Doc 47 Volume 1 Application and Schedules A-B|Schedule B-8 (CWIP) of Doc. 47]] in Docket 26-001-U lists two transmission-plant projects in Entergy's test-year Construction Work in Progress named for AVAIO: **"Avaio Digital Ctr-Instl 115kV" ($283, last activity Apr-25)** and **"Avaio Digital Partner LR Data" ($-309, last activity Apr-25)**. These are the first public-record line items showing that Entergy is recovering the cost of building 115 kV transmission specifically to serve AVAIO Project Leo through the standard rate base — not through a contract-customer-specific charge. ## Land record (2026-06-03) A Pulaski County recorded-deed search (primary public record, [Project Leo deed pull](../../web%20archive/2026-06-03/pulaskideeds.com/avaio-project-leo-deed-pull.md)) found **no recorded deed conveying the core 296-acre campus to AVAIO** — record title remains in [[Arnett Construction Company]], and AVAIO ("AVAIO Digital Partners II, LLC") appears only as a survey-certification party, consistent with an unrecorded purchase contract / equitable interest. Separately, AVAIO is **assembling a second footprint to the north** through [[ADP Little Rock Green Compute, LLC]]: a **32–52-year ground lease over ~370 acres** from [[Bud Price Family Farms, LLC]] (Inst. 2025019429, eff. 2025-02-04) and an **$800,000 purchase of ~40 acres** from [[Matson Properties]] (Inst. 2026000055, recorded [[2026-01 ADP Little Rock Green Compute Buys Land North of Project Leo|2026-01-02]]). ## State environmental permits (DEE-DEQ, 2026-06-08) The [[deq/seek-pds-data-center-permits-2026-06-08/_overview|DEE-DEQ production]] shows Project Leo's state environmental footprint is **construction-stormwater only**, under the SPV [[ADP Little Rock Data Hub, LLC]] (SEEK site 7776390, AFIN 60-06409): CGP `ARR150000` → coverage `ARR158986` plus a Short-Term Activity Authorization (STAA-26-047). There is **no air permit** for AVAIO/Leo in SEEK or PDS — unlike the Google/Project Pyramid site's [[Project Pyramid Title V Air Permit (2507-AOP-R0)|Title V air permit]] — and **no operational NPDES-discharge or cooling-water-withdrawal record**, so the project's **cooling-water source remains unnamed in DEQ records** (see [[Identifying the Unnamed Cooling-Water Data Centers]]). See [[AVAIO Little Rock SEEK Construction-Stormwater Records]]. ## Air pre-permitting and the ESA terms (DEE-DEQ item-6 supplemental, 2026-06-12) The [[deq/pre-permitting-correspondence-2026-06-11/_overview|item-6 supplemental]] adds the **air-permit pre-application record** and a **Tier-1 statement of the Entergy ESA's terms**: - At the [[2025-10 DEQ Pre-Application Meeting with AVAIO|10/30/25 pre-app]], AVAIO told DEQ it "would install **62 emergency diesel backup generators**" (Cummins QSK78-G37 / C3000D6EB, 3 MW each ≈ **186 MW** of diesel backup for a 150 MW grid connection). The engines are **Tier 2-certified** emergency units to be fitted with Miratech SCR/DPF ("Tier 4 equivalent"); through [[Mark Allison]] and the [[AVAIO Tier 4 Equivalent Email to the Commerce Secretary|Commerce-Secretary channel]], AVAIO asked the state to treat NERC EEA / ESA-curtailment events as Subpart IIII "emergencies." DEQ's furthest documented step: "There may be a path forward with permitting 'Tier IV equivalent' emergency engines through Title V permitting" (Kimbrough, 2026-03-19), citing 40 CFR 60.4211(g)(3). **No Leo air-permit application had been filed** as of the production. See [[AVAIO Emergency Generator Pre-Permitting Correspondence]]. - The Commerce email states the ESA terms no public docket shows: "a **mandatory curtailment provision** on a temporary basis for up to **150h per year**"; "**Without this provision, Entergy would not have supplied any power**"; curtailment to 0 MW as MISO **LMR Type 1 until [[Ironwood]] CT (November 2028)**, then on **EEA-2 events until [[Jefferson Power Station]] (December 2029)**, ~1 hour notice, uncompensated (`260305-email.pdf`, pp. 2–5). This is the Tier-1 counterpart of the website disclosure below. - AVAIO's SPV series extends out of state: [[ADP Rankin Data Hub, LLC]] (Brandon, MS; 50 × 3 MW; PSD-avoidance synthetic minor) — the "we encountered this issue in Mississippi" precedent. ## First-party power disclosure (company website, 2026-06-11) AVAIO's official Little Rock campus page (Tier-3, first-party, archived 2026-06-11) states the company **"has broken ground on Project Leo"** and discloses the project's power-contract posture for the first time anywhere public: an **"[e]xecuted ESA with Entergy Arkansas for an initial 150 MW of grid power energized in April 2027,"** with **"[a] further 420 MW of Entergy grid power ... planned for 2030, bringing the entire campus to a baseload capacity of 1.1 GW"** (web research 2026-06-11, [AVAIO campus page capture](../../web%20archive/2026-06-11/www.avaiodigital.com/avaio-project-leo-esa-150mw-2026-06-11.md)). No such Electric Service Agreement appears in any public APSC docket record as of 2026-06-11 — the company's own statement is the only public evidence the contract exists, sharpening the open question of where the AVAIO ESA sits in the [[Special rate contract|SRC]]/sealed-filing architecture documented in [[Who Pays for Entergy's New Generation]]. ## Notes Publicly, AVAIO Digital and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission have framed Project Leo as a ~$6 billion first phase, up to ~$21 billion at full buildout, on a ~760-acre campus, with power demand of up to 1 GW. The Pulaski County file reviewed a **296.354-acre tract** — the site plan footprint — and documents an engineered build of **one 60 MW and four 40 MW data-center buildings**; see [[county-pulaski/project-leo-2026-05-22/_overview|the Project Leo planning file]]. The "~760-acre campus" framing now has a documentary correlate: the surveyed 296-acre core (Arnett-derived) **plus** the ~370-acre Bud Price leasehold and ~40-acre Matson purchase to the north (Green Compute) approach that figure — though the record does not formally tie the northern parcels to the data-center project (see [[ADP Little Rock Green Compute, LLC]]). This page anchors the former index seed "AVAIO Digital." **Site-plan history (2026-06-02 production).** The [[development-applications-2026-06-02/_overview|Planning & Development development-applications production]] adds three things. First, the 145th Street area carried an **earlier, smaller data-center site plan** — [[Coushatta Management, LLC]]'s single 60,000 SF building, administratively approved 2024-02-23 — before AVAIO's filing; the deed record now shows Coushatta's parcel is a **separate 62.7-acre tract adjoining the campus on the west**, bought from the same grantor ([[Arnett Construction Company]]), not the campus itself. Second, AVAIO's own [[AVAIO Project Leo Large Site-Plan Package|"Project Little Rock" summary]] (Kimley-Horn, Nov 2024) originally described **nine buildings — three 60 MW + six 40 MW, ~420 MW — on 296.354 acres**, then **revised in August 2025 to five buildings** (~220 MW), roughly halving the engineered on-paper capacity even as the public "up to 1 GW" framing persisted. Third, the production contains AVAIO's [[Nationwide Permit|USACE Nationwide-Permit]] wetland package for the jurisdictional-waters crossings (Phase-1 delineation, AJD request, water-impact figures, T&E and cultural-resource reports).