For months, corporate executives visited tracts of land, both untouched wilderness and productive agricultural properties. Rumors flew around the community as “shell” companies with names like Latin-American Development & Management Corp. and Ayefour Corporation acquired tens of thousands of acres for a secretive project. State officials who knew something about the “secret” were tight-lipped.
This isn’t the story of some mysterious data center being built in the next state over. It happened in 1965 and the company behind the purchases was Disney. It was preparing to build Disney World.
Disney may be a high-profile example of these practices but it is far from the only company that approached acquisition and development in this way before data center developers. A frequent target of criticism when data centers are built today is the conditions under which the land is purchased and the logistics of construction are determined. One reason for this strategy is to prevent skyrocketing prices and land speculation.
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