EATONVILLE, Fla. — Eatonville town leaders decided not to increase fines for an AI data center owner who repeatedly missed deadlines to finish the project.
HostDime, which owns a data center off I-4 and Lee Road in Eatonville, originally slated the project’s completion for 2020, but it was repeatedly delayed.
The town fined HostDime $250 a day after it missed a June 2025 deadline for the data center to become fully operational. As of September 1st, the fines totaled $99,250.
“It’s been now over a year that we have not met the completion date by the HostDime management,” said Councilwoman Wanda Randolph.
Randolph introduced a measure that would have increased the fines to $500 a day. Councilman Tarus Mack supported the measure and blasted Manny Vivar, CEO for HostDime, for not attending the September 1st town council meeting to provide an update on the project. Mack said Vivar’s absence was “disrespectful.”
“What you not going to do is come in my community and do what you want to do and dictate how you want to operate not as long as I’m a legislator in this town,” said Mack. It’s not going to happen.
Channel 9 reached out to Vivar by phone and text message for a comment. Late Tuesday night, Vivar texted Channel 9’s Dave Jordan and said he will provide an update on Wednesday.
The town council said it will revisit the issue of increasing the fines at a later date.
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