Ida Huddleston data center offer rejected as project advances nearby
Ida Huddleston and her daughter rejected offers exceeding $26 million, while a proposed Mason County data center moves ahead on neighboring land.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
2 min read
An Ida Huddleston data center offer exceeding $26 million was rejected by the 82-year-old Kentucky farmer and her daughter, Delsia Bare. The proposed development would not be built on the family’s land if it proceeds: Local 12 reported it would sit beside their farm after other owners agreed to sell.
Huddleston’s family holds about 1,200 acres outside Maysville in Mason County, according to Local 12. Huddleston has lived there since she was 16, Fortune reported, and several generations of the family remain on the property.
An unnamed company, described by Fortune as a major artificial-intelligence firm, approached dozens of Mason County landowners about a data-center campus. Local 12 reported on March 18, 2026, and updated March 24, that the company had approached Huddleston’s family in the prior April about buying roughly half its holdings.
Why did Ida Huddleston reject the data center offer?
The offers applied to separate portions of the wider family property. Fortune reported that Huddleston was offered about $60,000 an acre for 71 acres, or roughly $4.26 million, while Bare was offered $48,000 an acre for 463 acres, or about $22.22 million. Together, those figures amount to about $26.48 million.
The women said their decision reflected family ties to the farm and a desire to keep the land in agricultural use. Bare told Local 12 that the family’s connection to the property went back generations. Huddleston told LEX 18, as quoted by Fortune, that she did not want or need the money.
Bare told People that she had briefly signed a sales agreement, citing fears about possible eminent-domain action and pressure from developers who did not identify themselves, before she and her mother withdrew. The material available does not include a contract, land records or a named developer.
Huddleston and Bare have also questioned whether the project would provide the jobs and economic gains officials anticipate, and they have raised concerns about potential effects of data centers on water and the surrounding area. Those are the family’s stated concerns; the supplied reporting does not establish that this proposed project would cause those effects.
What is happening with the Mason County data center plan?
The development has continued without the Huddleston land. Fortune, citing Local 12, reported that the company assembled property from other sellers and that the local planning commission approved a rezoning request involving nearly 28 agricultural parcels covering more than 2,000 acres.
County officials have said the project could create hundreds of full-time jobs and more than 1,000 construction jobs, according to Fortune. Those figures are projections rather than completed hiring or construction results.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.