Black Mountain bought 2,000 acres near Weatherford. Here's what to know
A Fort Worth energy consortium has assembled more than 2,000 acres of Parker County land just outside Weatherford — and has already secured state approval to run five natural gas turbines on the property as “backup/bridge power for a new data center.”
The buyer is Black Mountain, the same company pushing a $10 billion AI data center on Fort Worth’s southeast edge. The land sits near Azle Highway and Pearson Ranch Road, roughly seven miles northeast of downtown Weatherford. Weatherford’s city manager says the city has no interest in annexing it. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has already given the gas turbines a green light.
For landowners watching their pastures, water wells and night sky, here’s where things stand.
The land deal
According to the Parker County Appraisal District, Black Mountain purchased land worth more than $57 million in assessed value in 2025. Sale prices were not made public.
Most of the acreage came from DTB Investments LP, owned by the duPerier Texas Landman, a Boerne-based family real estate company. A representative for DTB told the Star-Telegram the company could not comment on the sales, citing confidentiality agreements in the contracts.
A smaller piece — just under 200 acres — came from Advantage Opportunities LP, owned by Fralin Investments LP. Public records list Robin Wallace and Jerry Patton as owners of Fralin. Wallace’s LinkedIn identifies him as the office manager for Advantage Opportunities.
Black Mountain CEO Rhett Bennett confirmed the company is eyeing the site.
“We are evaluating many sites, only a fraction of which actually make it all the way through development and become an operational project,” Bennett said.
What the TCEQ permit actually means
In April 2025, Fort Worth Power Core LLC — which lists Bennett as CEO — received TCEQ approval to operate five natural gas turbines at 501 Pearson Ranch Road, at the southern end of the Black Mountain property. The application states the turbines would provide “backup/bridge power for a new data center.”
TCEQ confirms the registration is active.
The permit is a state-level air emissions registration, not local zoning. It governs what the turbines are allowed to emit; it does not by itself authorize a data center, and it does not require any vote from Parker County or Weatherford residents to take effect. Fort Worth Power Core LLC holds similar TCEQ permits in Tarrant, Jack and Somervell counties. Some of those filings describe powering data centers. Others say the turbines would “generate power for sale.”
Weatherford said no — for now
In early 2025, Weatherford officials met with Black Mountain about annexing the land. City Manager James Hotopp says the city ultimately decided annexation wasn’t in Weatherford’s best interest. Then, in January, the City Council declined to add data centers to the city’s zoning code.
“We have heard your concerns and, given additional uncertainties, data centers will remain NOT ALLOWED in Weatherford,” a Jan. 16 city statement read.
Bennett told the Star-Telegram that Weatherford “did not tell us they don’t want us in the city.” Hotopp pushed back.
“We are not out trying to court them for a data center, that is 100% incorrect,” Hotopp said.
Hotopp also said he wasn’t aware of the TCEQ turbine application until the Star-Telegram asked him about it, and called the gas turbines “concerning.”
Here’s the wrinkle for rural landowners: Weatherford’s “not allowed” rule applies inside the city. The 2,000-plus acres Black Mountain bought sit outside the city limits, in Parker County. County governments in Texas have far less zoning authority than cities — meaning the local guardrails residents may assume exist often do not.
What’s happening in Fort Worth
The Parker County purchase is unfolding while Black Mountain’s $10 billion data center project in southeast Fort Worth runs into steady community pushback.
Fort Worth has already rezoned roughly 431 acres near Forest Hill and Everman for the campus, which would include four buildings totaling 2.2 million square feet of enclosed space, stand 68 feet tall and house an Oncor substation that would serve only the data center, according to the site plan.
Bennett has said the Fort Worth project would generate roughly $30 million annually in tax revenue and create “hundreds of high-skill, high-wage full-time jobs” with average wages over $75,000. The company does not have a formal economic development agreement with Fort Worth.
Not everyone is convinced. Sue Weston, owner of Weston Gardens adjacent to the Fort Worth site, has been among residents who have been speaking out about the project.
“It’s prime real estate to be developed for homes and other things, not a data center,” Weston said. “If you look at the few jobs that it’s going to create after construction, it makes no economic sense at all.”
At a tense March 11 community meeting in Forest Hill, residents held up “No Black Mountain” signs and challenged Bennett directly. “I don’t want to live in a city where my health is going to be at stake, where I’m going to inhale pollution and get sick,” one resident said.
Bennett has said environmental studies commissioned by Black Mountain show the data center would not create health risks.
Records also show Bennett donated a combined $46,000 to eight Fort Worth City Council members and Mayor Mattie Parker in 2025 while seeking zoning approvals, according to a Star-Telegram review. Black Mountain Power LLC donated $500,000 to Gov. Greg Abbott in November. Council members say the contributions don’t influence their votes.
The state-level picture
In April, the Texas House State Affairs Committee held its first hearing focused on data centers, part of an interim charge from Speaker Dustin Burrows ahead of the next legislative session. Developers told lawmakers the industry could be “the next iteration of, kind of, the oil boom that happened in Texas,” in the words of Skybox Datacenters’ Haynes Strader.
Public Utilities Commission Chairman Thomas Gleeson said the commission is working to ensure data centers don’t drive up electricity bills for everyday Texans. “The companies that we talk to are committed to not having residential rate payers bear the cost of this,” Gleeson said.
Bennett testified that “speed and time are of the essence” for getting data centers connected to the ERCOT grid, warning that other states are competing for the same investment.
What Parker County landowners are watching
For now, no data center is being formally developed on the Pearson Ranch Road property. What exists is the land, the assessed value, the TCEQ turbine permit and Bennett’s confirmation that the site is under evaluation.
“We are evaluating many sites,” Bennett said. Parker County is now one of them.
This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 4:10 PM.