Cielo Digital Infrastructure Economic Impact Analysis

Engagement Overview

Project-by-Project Impact for a National Developer

Cielo Digital Infrastructure is a data center developer with active projects in multiple U.S. states. As the company has scaled its development pipeline, it has retained Zenith Economics to provide economic and fiscal impact analyses on a per-project basis, supporting site selection, community outreach, local government negotiations, and tax incentive applications.

Our work for Cielo has covered more than five projects representing more than $1 billion in announced capital investment, with each study calibrated to the local economy of the project's host community.

Methodology

For each Cielo project, we deliver a tailored impact analysis that quantifies both the construction phase and the long-term operational phase of the data center:

• Construction phase. One-time spending on site work, structural construction, mechanical and electrical systems, and IT equipment installation. We break down construction spending by category to model supply-chain effects accurately.
• Operations phase. Recurring annual spending on facility staffing, maintenance, utilities (with attention to local power supply economics), security, and tenant operations.
• Fiscal impacts. Property tax, sales tax, payroll tax, and other revenue contributions to state and local governments, modeled net of any tax abatements granted as part of the project.
• Local labor analysis. Estimates of construction-phase and ongoing employment, including median wage profiles and retention of construction labor in the local market.

Each study uses IMPLAN with regional multipliers calibrated to the host county or metropolitan area, ensuring that supply-chain leakage is properly accounted for in markets where local industrial capacity may be limited.

Why Project-Level Studies Matter

Data center site selection is a multi-stakeholder process. Local governments want to understand the fiscal trade-offs of granting tax incentives. Communities want assurance about job creation and supply-chain participation. Utility regulators want detailed power demand and economic justification. State economic development agencies want regional context. A single, defensible economic impact analysis provides the common evidence base for all of these conversations.

By engaging Zenith Economics on an ongoing basis rather than project-by-project, Cielo has been able to standardize its impact reporting across projects while still delivering localized figures specific to each community. This consistency strengthens the company's credibility with regulators and accelerates project approvals.

Specific project results are confidential under client agreements. Aggregate metrics are shared with permission.

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