Newsflash: City Promotes Gaddy

The City of San Angelo announced a new Economic Development Executive Director.  It is the current Assistant Finance Director Ryan Gaddy.  He replaces Assistant City Manager Michael Dane, who acted as in that role since Guy Andrews surprise retired in August 2022.  Dane will retire from the City on January 2, 2026.

Gaddy's appointment speaks to the current stance of the Development Corporation, creating financial packages for new employers (regardless of how few actual jobs are provided on a long term basis).  Council approved an 85% tax abatement for three years for Peregrine Energy's Project Zeppelin.  The City would receive $351,000 in taxes over years 1-3, while Peregrine gets a $2.4 million tax break.  

The Development Corporation under his leadership "facilitated data center site development tied to renewable energy access."  And none of that has come before City Council to date.  

It's unclear which Texas data centers will have the required power to operate.  CNBC reported:

Cheap land and cheap energy are combining to attract a flood of data center developers to the state. The potential demand is so vast that it will be impossible to meet by the end of the decade, energy experts say.

Quote worth noting from the story: 

“We know it’s not all real. The question is how much is real.”

Hopefully, City Council and Executive Director Gaddy won't give away the store to Skybox or its major customers, AI or otherwise.  One might expect Council to come up with some parameters for such development.  

Surely Skybox needs access to city water, fire and police services.  Providing those for an entity outside city limits is doable.  Pricing that at the margin is asking Skybox to pay the incremental costs for adding that new level of service.  Add massive tax breaks, like Project Zeppelin's, and the city may not achieve that shift from residential dominated tax collections to majority corporate contributed.  

It remains to be seen what subsidies the city plans to provide Skybox.  Michael Dane's retirement letter to the City did not mention future plans and it may just be fishing area streams and lakes.  Or he could be fishing for city subsidies on behalf of an economic development target company or two.

Dane can lever his public service experience on behalf of current or future private sector efforts.  Former Assistant City Manager Elizabeth Grindstaff did just that with her work for Texas Pacifico Railroad and then Texas Central Partners, a developer of a high speed rail project between Houston and Dallas.  Grindstaff is currently a client services leader with engineering firm Freese & Nichols.  

The hiring finally gave the Development Corporation news it can post to its website.  I took the liberty of mocking up such a piece and it's the lead image for this article.  Hopefully, it's an improvement from the prior page (AI generated?).

Another new player is in place.  Stay tuned for future developments on the economic front.  

Update 12-16-25:  San Angelo economic developers told bitcoin miners "no" twice.  They did not say it was the Lancium crew which turned into Stargate's Giant AI facility.  They did so in a podcast which can be viewed below:

Update 12-20-25:  The Real Deal reported:

Bolt Data & Energy announced it raised $150 million in capital and struck a partnership with Texas Pacific Land Corporation, which is investing another $50 million into the venture, according to a joint press release Wednesday. The tie-up positions Bolt Data to develop large-scale data centers on Texas Pacific’s sprawling West Texas holdings, as demand for energy-hungry AI computers accelerates, Bloomberg reported.

Update 12-24-25:  City of San Angelo officials spoke with Concho Valley Homepage regarding possible data centers. 

Update 12-29-25:  

Council Member Patrick Keely will hold a Data Center Development Community Meeting on Monday, December 29, 2025 from 5:30-6:30 pm at the Downtown Library in the Brooks & Bates Room. The subject is the proposed Skybox Data Center on Highway 67 just north of city limits. Council approved the sale of 350 acres of city owned land to Skybox in March 2025. 

Issues are noise pollution, water use, appropriate zoning, need for city services while residing outside city limits, traffic safety and electrical power use for the proposed 1.5 million square foot development distributed across six buildings (each of which is four stories high). 

A flyer for this public meeting states the item will be voted on at Council's next meeting on January 13, 2026.

ConchoValleyHomepage ran a story on the community meeting.  It indicates Skybox is yet to purchase the land for any data center development.