A Manulife-managed timber company owns the Catfish Farm Road tract. Manulife also controls a major data-center developer. Just north along the same rural corridor, NextEra is developing one of Southwest Louisiana’s largest solar projects, complete with a new substation and switchyard. There is no announced data center in Beauregard Parish. But there are enough pieces here to start asking questions.

On July 12, a Facebook post appeared with a fairly simple message for people who had hunted a tract of land between DeQuincy and Singer:

Get your stuff out.

Anyone who had hunted the property off Catfish Farm Road the previous year was given until August 7 to remove stands, blinds and other belongings. Anything left behind would be forfeited, according to the post, and anyone entering afterward would be considered trespassing.

No reason was given for the sudden end to access.

Someone in the comments asked whether the property was being cleared for a data center.

The response: essentially, that was none of their business.

By itself, that is Facebook speculation.

The property records are considerably more interesting.

The land belongs to Hancock Timberland X

Beauregard Parish assessor records identify a large tract along Catfish Farm Road as belonging to Hancock Timberland X Inc.

The parcel contains approximately 750.33 acres.

It sits off LA-27 between the DeQuincy and Singer areas, an overwhelmingly rural part of Beauregard Parish dominated by timber, hunting land and scattered homes.

Hancock is not a small local timber company.

Hancock Timberland X is associated with the institutional timberland investment business now operated by Manulife Investment Management.

And that becomes relevant for a reason that has nothing to do with trees.

Manulife also controls a data-center company

In September 2023, Manulife Investment Management completed the acquisition of a controlling interest in Serverfarm, a company whose business is developing, owning and operating data centers.

At the time the transaction was announced, Serverfarm operated eight data centers totaling more than 1.5 million square feet and 125 megawatts of IT capacity. Manulife said its investment would provide capital to expand Serverfarm across North America and other markets.

Serverfarm has continued expanding since then.

Its portfolio includes data-center infrastructure in major markets including Atlanta, and the company describes its current business as developing and operating AI-ready, high-density facilities for hyperscale computing customers.

That does not mean Hancock Timberland X is Serverfarm.

It does not mean Manulife has selected the Catfish Farm Road property for a data center.

And 337.NEWS has not found a publicly announced data-center project for this property.

But it establishes a corporate connection that makes the question considerably less random than it first appears.

The organization managing the land also controls a company whose business is developing large-scale data centers.

Then there is what is already happening just up the road.

There is already a massive solar development near Singer

Some residents may not realize that one of the largest energy developments in Beauregard Parish is already being developed in the Singer area.

Singer Solar, a NextEra Energy Resources project, is planned along the same broader LA-27 corridor.

NextEra publicly describes Singer Solar as a 200-megawatt solar project encompassing approximately 1,970 acres.

The company estimates approximately $350 million in project investment, as many as 250 construction jobs and approximately $38 million in additional parish tax revenue over the first 35 years of the project.

But the federal environmental records reveal just how physically large the development is.

An April 2024 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notice describes Singer Solar as being constructed on a 2,661-acre tract in Beauregard Parish.

The project includes far more than rows of solar panels.

Plans call for roads, supporting infrastructure, a switchyard and a substation, along with extensive clearing and grading.

The Corps filing says construction would permanently convert approximately 981 acres of wetland pine plantation and bottomland hardwood habitat to herbaceous habitat through clearing and solar-panel installation. Another roughly 14.5 acres of wetlands would be permanently filled for roads and structures.

In other words, this is not a small solar installation hidden behind a tree line.

It is a major industrial-scale energy project.

The two properties are not the same project

The Hancock property off Catfish Farm Road is not identified in the Singer Solar federal permit as part of Singer Solar.

There is currently no document reviewed by 337.NEWS tying the Hancock parcel to NextEra.

There is also no document establishing that Serverfarm, or any other data-center developer, has acquired, leased or optioned the Catfish Farm Road tract.

Those facts matter.

But geography matters too.

The Hancock land and Singer Solar occupy the same broader rural development corridor off LA-27 south of DeRidder.

One property is controlled by an institutional timberland investment vehicle.

Nearby, thousands of acres are being transformed for utility-scale electric generation and new electrical infrastructure.

And the investment manager behind the timberland owner also happens to control a company aggressively developing power-intensive data centers.

That combination is enough to warrant attention without pretending it proves something it does not.

Why a substation matters

Data centers consume extraordinary amounts of electricity.

For large facilities, cheap land alone is not enough.

Developers also look for access to transmission infrastructure, substations, available electrical capacity, fiber, water where required, and large contiguous tracts capable of supporting substantial development.

Singer Solar's new switchyard and substation exist because a 200-megawatt power plant needs infrastructure to move electricity onto the grid.

There is no evidence in the Singer Solar permit that those facilities are being constructed for a neighboring data center.

They are normal components of a utility-scale solar project.

But their construction changes the infrastructure profile of an area that until recently consisted largely of timberland and rural residential property.

And Singer Solar itself has unanswered questions

NextEra's public project page still describes Singer Solar as a 200-megawatt project and says it was expected to begin operating as early as January 2026.

That date has passed.

Other federal energy data reviewed by 337.NEWS has listed different capacity and completion information for Singer Solar.

That discrepancy does not establish that the project has expanded or that additional generation has anything to do with another development.

It does mean the public-facing description of one of Beauregard Parish's largest infrastructure projects does not currently tell the whole story.

337.NEWS is continuing to examine those records separately.

So what happened on Catfish Farm Road?

That remains the central question.

Why were hunters suddenly told to remove their belongings?

Was the property sold?

Has it been optioned?

Is there a new lease?

Is Hancock preparing the land for timber activity, another energy project, industrial development or simply a change in management?

Or is the timing entirely unrelated to Singer Solar and Manulife's data-center investments?

We don't know yet.

And that is the point.

There is a difference between reporting that a data center is coming to Beauregard Parish and reporting that the underlying facts are unusual enough that the public should know about them.

Right now, the facts are these:

A 750-acre tract off Catfish Farm Road owned by Hancock Timberland X was closed to people who had previously hunted it.

The company behind that land is connected through Manulife Investment Management to Serverfarm, a major data-center developer.

Just north in the Singer area, NextEra is developing a roughly $350 million utility-scale solar project spanning thousands of acres, including construction of a new substation and switchyard.

There is currently no public evidence establishing that these developments are connected.

But there is enough here to start pulling records.

The next clues are likely to be found in conveyances, leases, purchase options, servitudes, utility filings, surveys and corporate registrations — the paperwork that often appears before a major project gets a name or a press release.

And if residents around Catfish Farm Road or Singer know something that isn't yet in the public record, 337.NEWS wants to hear from them.

A familiar pattern is already playing out in Moss Bluff

The combination is notable because Southwest Louisiana is already watching a similar situation unfold in north Calcasieu Parish.

Near Moss Bluff, Orion Renewable Energy Group has assembled leases covering thousands of acres for the proposed Persimmon Energy Center, a roughly 4,700-acre solar development. Immediately south of that proposed solar footprint, another company is evaluating approximately 1,100 acres for a possible data center. Both developers have publicly said the projects are not connected.

That distinction matters here as well. There is currently no evidence that Singer Solar and the Hancock Timberland property on Catfish Farm Road are part of a single development.

But Moss Bluff demonstrates why the geography itself is worth watching. Large solar developments, substations, transmission infrastructure and very large tracts of relatively inexpensive rural land can attract separate projects with very different end uses. In Moss Bluff, the proposed solar farm and potential data-center site ended up directly adjacent even while both companies denied a contractual relationship between them.

The Singer corridor now presents a different but recognizable set of facts: a utility-scale solar project with new electrical infrastructure, hundreds of nearby acres being removed from recreational use, and a land manager whose broader corporate organization also controls a major data-center developer.

None of that proves the same thing is happening in Beauregard Parish.

It is enough to justify paying attention before another major land-use project becomes public knowledge.

About the Author

Dalton Barron covers real estate, infrastructure, development, public records and the underlying numbers shaping Southwest Louisiana for 337.NEWS.

Barron is also a licensed Louisiana real estate agent with NextHome Bayou Pines.

Dalton Barron
NextHome Bayou Pines
Jeremy Jones, Broker/Owner
C. 337.764.1754
O. 337.202.1018
416 N. Pine St.
DeRidder, LA 70634
Licensed by the LREC
Each office is independently owned and operated.