Construction workers building Meta’s largest data center ever are bringing not only their expertise and manpower to a small town in Louisiana, but also disposable cash.
Local entrepreneurs are leveraging this to start new businesses.
David Rodgers, co-founder of local business Ice Queen, told Business Insider: “This is a great opportunity for everyone. I tell people that unless you have $50 billion, you can’t stop it. You’re better off going with the flow and riding the trend.”
Meta stated that the Hyperion data center, spanning nearly 10 million square feet, will be located in the rural area of Holly Ridge and will support over 7,500 jobs during peak construction.
This number exceeds the population of Aspen, Colorado.
Although the influx of construction workers has put pressure on the local housing market and disrupted certain aspects of daily life, their presence has also boosted the local economy.
Turn straw into gold
Holly Ridge is just a small part of the nearly 19,600 residents in Richland Parish. For decades, agriculture has been the primary industry here. Before Meta’s arrival, the towns, villages, and unincorporated areas comprising Richland Parish had seen no significant economic growth for years.
Tim Allen, a restaurant owner in Richland Parish, experienced this stagnation nearby in Rayville.
Allen said, “Rayville is the small community where I’ve lived my whole life, and it’s been declining over the past few years. Many people’s children have moved away and typically don’t return. When I was growing up, downtown Rayville had multiple shops, hardware stores, and clothing stores. One by one, they closed down until only a few remained.”
After Meta announced the project in 2024, Allen and his family were among those who saw the opportunity and wanted to turn things around.
Allen said, “Since Meta announced the project, we’ve seen old stores revitalized and new ones opening, including our own.” Holy Tacos opened in April 2025.
TJ and Kaycie Weed, also based in Rayville, said the new customer base brought by the Meta project boosted their sales. Their café, HeBrews Coffee & Eats, opened at the end of 2021.
TJ said: “When we first started, we thought selling 30 orders in a day was great. Now, we can do 30 orders in just an hour and a half through our drive-thru window. We’re currently doing about 130 orders.”
This café in Rayville is a brick-and-mortar location, but the couple also operates two franchise outlets, including a food truck that opened in 2025 directly across from the Holly Ridge construction site. They say the Holly Ridge location was opened specifically because of Meta.
TJ said: "Holly Ridge handled most of the food orders. If it's any business under Meta, I would route the order to Holly Ridge."
The construction worker surge also prompted Rodgers and former business partner Linda Edwards to co-found Ice Queen in 2025, a company that sells ice in 3-dollar-per-bag units to subcontractors and businesses involved in Meta projects.
This summer, the parish experienced multiple heatwaves, making ice a necessity for outdoor construction workers. Since July, local residents have seen temperatures exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit more than twenty times. The two stored ice packs in a large trailer parked near the construction site and used a dedicated ice truck for deliveries.
However, ice was just the beginning; over time, Ice Queen gradually evolved into a one-stop supply station for construction crews. Coffee machines, cups, sugar packets, refrigerators, microwaves, straws—anything you could think of, Ice Queen tried its best to provide.
Robert Cleveland, President and CEO of the local economic development agency Grow NELA, said that the economic growth taking place in Richland Parish is undeniable.
Grow NELA’s collected data shows that Richland Parish’s annual sales tax revenue increased from $21 million in 2024 to $39 million in 2025. Grow NELA projects that by the end of 2026, the parish’s annual sales tax revenue will reach $92 million. Grow NELA states that the additional annual sales tax revenue generated in Richland Parish in 2025 alone exceeded the total accumulated over the previous 20 years.
Cleveland said, "We've seen numerous small businesses established and achieve significant growth because of this project."
Supply and demand
Part of the commercial growth in Richland Parish comes from providing lodging, food, and essential supplies for construction workers away from home.
For example, Angel and Bryan Crawford chose to address the housing market gap through their rental company, Parish Line Properties. The couple owns a mobile home park called Antley Pines, which opened in 2025.
Angel said, "We added two more units in December last year, four more in May this year, and the final four in July. These units were already reserved with deposits by Meta employees before they were even placed in the community."
A mobile home with fully furnished interiors, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and located 8 miles from the construction site has an average rent of $3,000.
The couple previously worked in the healthcare industry, but after their children left home, they decided to transition into real estate and property management.
Angel said: "In 2024, we began purchasing older homes that had been on the market for a long time or required extensive renovations. We already had the idea of creating a mobile home park, and after learning about Meta's data center project, we had already acquired some land."
Today, the company owns 18 rental properties, 14 of which are retained by the owners as worker housing.
She said, “Location is crucial for Meta’s workers because they work six to seven days a week, more than twelve hours each day. They leave home around 4:30 a.m. and don’t get back until 7 p.m.”
Shelbie Stephenson, the owner of Holly Ridge, said they deliver 450 lunches twice a month to the Meta construction site. Stephenson also mentioned that they provide breakfast and coffee catering services multiple times each month.
She said, "During Safety Week, we made 900 burritos and 2,500 cups of coffee."
Stephenson said the construction team usually orders breakfast burritos, muffins, and scones in the morning. For lunch, they typically buy shredded pork nachos, steak bites with chili over rice, chicken bites over rice, or sandwiches.
In addition to operating physical stores, Holy Tacos provides lunch catering orders for workers on the Meta project.
Allen said, “We went to the workers’ temporary dormitories—the temporary accommodations for construction workers—and used our mobile devices to cook for them.”
He said these teams order from Holy Tacos one to four times per month.
Allen said, “The cost of catering orders ranges from $4,000 to $7,000, depending on the scale. We already had a solid local customer base, but with the catering business, about 40% of our monthly revenue is directly tied to Meta.”
Staying hydrated is also essential in northeastern Louisiana, amid multiple heatwaves sweeping the region this summer.
Rodgers said, "Pallets of water are what we make the most money on because safety is involved. It's too hot here. I buy full truckloads of water and deliver about 30 to 40 pallets to these people each week."
A tray of Ice Queen sells for approximately $600. Another notable product is Liquid I.V., an electrolyte drink designed to aid hydration, priced at just over $1 per packet.
Edwards said, "Liquid I.V. is one of the most important products because these people will become severely dehydrated. They have never experienced such heat and humidity before. Temperatures there can reach up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit."
Future Plans
A study commissioned by Grow NELA in June found that consumer spending and capital investment during data center construction will generate $162.9 million in sales tax revenue at the local and state levels.
Although Meta temporarily turned Richland Parish into a modern-day boomtown, most construction workers will eventually move on to other jobs, taking their spending with them.
Business owners in Richland Parish know this reality was bound to come.
Allen said Holy Tacos will likely continue providing catering to other businesses in the area and rely on its own restaurant for ongoing operations. TJ and Kaycie stated that HeBrews Coffee & Eats will continue to depend on its customer base established before Meta’s arrival. The Crawfords mentioned they are considering selling the properties after construction is complete or continuing to rent them out. Ice Queen has already diversified its business and plans to rely on other major clients in the area.
Louisiana Economic Development stated that Meta expects construction at the site in Richland Parish to continue through 2030.
As for what will happen next, no one can say for sure. But at least for now, money can still be made.