ST. FRANCISVILLE - The West Feliciana Parish Industrial Development Board passed a resolution Monday afternoon that approves a schedule for when and how money it receives from a new data center will be distributed throughout the parish.

As previously reported by WBRZ, a multi-billion-dollar data center is being built in the southern part of West Feliciana.

Instead of a traditional property tax, the center's developer, HUT 8, will pay the parish for its own property through a "Payment in Lieu of Tax" lease agreement, also known as a PILOT agreement.

"The resolution that we approved basically is the distribution schedule for HUT 8 money that comes in through the pilot program," West Feliciana Sheriff and Board member Brian Spillman said.

The parish created the Industrial Development Board as an entity, which then made a contract with HUT 8.

"HUT 8 donates their property to us, makes it tax exempt, then they lease it back from us in Payment in Lieu of Tax, you've heard the term PILOT, so that we can then give them a discount," the Board's attorney, Dannie Garrett, said.

When the facility is finished, Garrett says the payments could generate as much as $90 million a year.

"That is then divided amongst all the entities, and roughly about a little less than 10% of it will go to those smaller taxing bodies. The rest of it will be divided evenly between the school board, the parish, and the sheriff's office," Garrett said.

Until then, there is a scheduled prepayment of a portion of the initial pilot lease agreement.

"The first official PILOT payment is July 1, 2027. The facility won't be completely up and running by then, so it'll be a little smaller, but then come July 1, 2028, then the full facility is up and running. That's when the main benefit will be," Garrett said.

According to the resolution passed, the prepayment will be distributed, with the first $5.3 million going to the parish school board and $800,000 going to the sheriff's office. The remainder of the prepayment will be paid to the parish government.

"They (HUT 8) will make payments to the IDB. The IDB's sole function is to be this intermediary. This portion to the parish, this portion to the school district, this portion to the sheriff. They made the decision to also include the other smaller taxing bodies in the parish, like the fire district, the assessor, and so forth."

Sheriff Spillman says this money will be helpful with parish improvement projects.

"Goal one is to meet some pending infrastructure needs, and then we're going to try to invest and then hopefully give some money back to our taxpayers one day," Spillman said.

Spillman says they anticipate receiving the prepayment within the next few months, even though it's due by July 1, 2027.

Hut 8 has also entered into a separate agreement with the parish to expand parish water infrastructure in the form of a water well, eight miles of water main, and fire hydrants.