A New York City developer applied with Archbald this month to build close to 1 million square feet of data centers in the wooded area between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road, nearly abutting two low-income housing developments in Archbald and Jermyn.
Called “Project Gravity,” the proposed data center would be located above Eynon’s shopping corridor on Business Route 6, spanning just over 186 acres from Business Route 6 on its western border to Eynon Jermyn Road on its east, with entrances on both roads, according to a sketch plan submitted to Archbald dated April 2. The Times-Tribune obtained the project’s subdivision/land development application form and concept plan Wednesday through a Right to Know Law request filed with Archbald.
The developer submitted its sketch plan for the Archbald Planning Commission’s April 2 meeting, Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer Brian Dulay said Tuesday.
It is now the second data center campus proposed for Archbald in recent months. Earlier this year, a developer proposed a $2.1 billion artificial intelligence data center campus on nearly 400 mountainside acres in Archbald along Business Route 6 and Wildcat Road. The borough has not received any additional information on that data center, borough Manager Dan Markey said.
A data center is physical or virtual infrastructure used by organizations to house and manage their IT systems and related components, such as servers, storage systems and networking equipment, according to a frequently asked questions document related to the new project. Key components include servers, networking equipment, storage systems, cooling systems, a power supply and security.
It is not yet clear what type of data centers Project Gravity will use.
Who’s behind the data center?
According to the land development application and sketch plan, Archbald 25 Developer LLC, 80 Broad St., floor 18, New York, New York, wants to build at least six two-story data center buildings, each 135,000-square-feet per floor. The application references seven data center buildings, but the actual sketch plans only show six data centers, labeled A through F. There would also be a 230 kilovolt switching station and a customer substation near the western edge of the property. The land development application identifies the owner of Archbald 25 Developer LLC as Harry Bram. Attempts to reach Bram were unsuccessful.
The footprint of six data centers alone, excluding the electric stations, stormwater management ponds and roads through the land, would equal 810,000 square feet.
The main entrance to the data center campus would be south of the Valley View Estates mobile home park on Eynon Jermyn Road, with one of the data center buildings just southwest of the mobile homes.
Sketch plans for the proposed “Project Gravity” data center campus in Archbald, obtained via Right-to-Know Law request. The plans show a data center near the Valley View Estates mobile home park, as well as the site’s main entrance.
On the northwest corner of the property, two other data center buildings would also be just south of the Lackawanna County Housing Authority townhouses along Gibson Street in Jermyn.
Sketch plans for the proposed “Project Gravity” data center campus in Archbald, obtained via Right-to-Know Law request. The plans show two data centers close to the Lackawanna County Housing Authority townhouses in Jermyn.
Archbald 25 Developer LLC initially filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on Oct. 10 as Western Hospitality Partners — Jermyn LLC under a Denver, Colorado-based law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, which describes itself on its website as “one of the nation’s leading lobbying firms, offering a bipartisan team with full-service lobbying, public policy and legal representation that helps companies, associations, nonprofits and other organizations interpret federal government actions, solve challenges and seize opportunities.”
A note on the data center’s sketch plan references a “survey for Western Hospitality Partners — La Grange LLC.”
An annual report filed March 20 with the Department of State changed the address to a residential address in Bergenfield, New Jersey, with member Allen Bram signing the report. On April 2, an amended filing changed the company’s name to Archbald 25 Developer LLC, with Harry Bram signing that form. A coinciding updated annual report also changed the address to 80 Broad St., floor 18, in New York City.
Western Hospitality Partners also has plans for a comparable data center in Oldham County, Kentucky, which is near Louisville. According to a website dedicated to that project, Western Hospitality would build eight data centers, amounting to a $6 billion investment in Kentucky. Those eight data centers would create 150-plus jobs with an average salary of $80,000 a year, according to oldhamcountydatacenter.com. The company said the majority of its Kentucky site would be “left green and open.”
In Archbald, Western Hospitality Partners — Jermyn LLC signed a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement Oct. 15 to buy the 186.21-acre parcel from property owner Five Up Realty LLC, 805 Enterprise St., Dickson City. James Marzolino signed on behalf of Five Up; Harry Bram signed for Western Hospitality. The agreement, which was recorded with the Lackawanna County Recorder of Deeds on Oct. 21, does not include a sale price.
Five Up Realty bought the land from Louis and Dominick DeNaples’ Dunmore-based D&L Realty Company in May 2023 for $825,000, according to a property transaction recorded May 15, 2023.
In a statement Wednesday, Marzolino said he looks forward to any investment in Northeast Pennsylvania and surrounding areas that meet consumers’ demands.
“Given the state’s strong infrastructure and the growing demand for data and industrial / power capacity, it’s no surprise that we’ve seen interest from developers like WHP and Provident. Both groups are actively advancing projects in Archbald, further underscoring the region’s potential as a strategic hub for next-generation hyperscale data center development,” he said.
Marzolino provided a frequently asked questions document on data centers, which lists 13 benefits, including job creation, economic growth and investment, improved infrastructure, better internet connectivity, higher demand for local services and community development projects.
Why Archbald?
In speaking to data center companies, Dulay attributed the local attraction to Archbald’s proximity to high-voltage power lines running through the valley, including near the proposed data center campus, and the proximity to fiber internet lines.
Western Hospitality’s Kentucky data center website reflects that, describing that site as ideal because it is along a major power transmission line and has access to high-speed fiber-optic connections.
Nearly all of the data center campus, except part of a parking lot and two stormwater ponds on its northwest boundary, fall in Archbald’s general commercial zoning district, or C-2 zone. The parking lot and ponds are in an R-2 medium density residential district. Data centers are principally permitted in C-2 zones, but Markey said the borough’s March 2023 zoning ordinance does not actually define data centers.
Archbald now wants to correct that language to correctly define data centers, he said.
“We weren’t really thinking about data centers in this capacity, at this magnitude, back when the zoning ordinance was passed,” Markey said.
The original intent of Archbald’s commercial district data center zoning was referring to companies having small on-site data centers, like Verizon and AT&T, Markey said, adding, “You see them all over the place, but you never really notice them.”
“I don’t think we knew that these things existed,” he said of large-scale data center campuses.
With the sketch plan presentation to the planning commission, the next step in the land development process for the proposed data center campus will be providing the borough with a preliminary submission, Dulay said. Archbald will then continue its review with its borough engineer, as well as the Lackawanna County Regional Planning Commission, he said.
The data center will also need various other permits, including a highway occupancy permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, a wetlands permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, a stormwater management permit and a sewer planning permit, according to its land development application.
During this month’s planning meeting, there was a question whether the facilities would use air or liquid to cool the computer hardware making up the data centers, with the company saying they are still evaluating their options before committing to a final design, Dulay said.
Jessup resident Jeff Smith, who is the vice chair of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the environmental nonprofit Sierra Club and an executive committee member of the Sierra Club’s Northeastern Pennsylvania Group, urged Archbald to be cautious about being the first municipality to bring in a data center campus without adequate zoning in place.
“The adverse effects on the residents, and residents that are on the lower income spectrum, it seems hurtful,” Smith said, pointing to a lack of information on how the plant would be cooled and its energy consumption. “I would proceed with caution, and I hope that Archbald is going to take a hard look at this because I don’t see an overall benefit with it placed right there for the residents of Archbald.”
He called the close proximity to low-income housing troubling.
“It looks like that industry is trying to take advantage of Archbald and of its residents,” Smith said.