BY SAM KARLIN
Staff writer | The Advocate
Meta’s decision to build one of the world’s largest data centers in a northeast Louisiana rural farming community has made a group of shrewd landowners millions of dollars, but it’s also creating tension around who is benefiting from the sales as the cost of land there soars.
Land previously worth a few thousand dollars per acre is now priced at $40,000 an acre or more. The dramatic swings in price have caused some in Richland Parish to question who was “in the know” about the project and benefited from land deals made shortly before Gov. Jeff Landry officially announced it in December 2024.
Those complaints are now being litigated in court. A handful of landowners who sold their acreage near the site at lower rates in the months leading up to the project’s announcement are suing to unwind the deals. They allege that they were shorted on profits by buyers who had inside information about Meta’s plans.
Read More: https://www.nola.com/news/meta-richland-land-price/article_cfa0073a-d730-4030-861c-77be2a5ec918.html