A Costco shop is already being built in Cumberland County.
Could a data center that fuels the Information Age—another hallmark of 21st-century boomtown sizzle—be long behind?
Perhaps not.
A property in Middlesex Township, around five miles northeast of Carlisle, is being investigated by American Real Estate Partners for the construction of a hyperscale data center complex. Imagine a large computer server farm that would increase the country’s capacity for much-needed information sharing and storage.
According to PowerPoint presentations the firm has been sharing with township and county authorities, if the center is completed, it could provide 225 permanent employment at full build-out and provide a $65 million yearly tax windfall to the township, school district, and county treasuries.
According to such data,Nearly 700 acres along Country Club Road, which were originally designated for two distinct big residential developments but have not yet seen the commencement of home construction, are being targeted by Powerhouse Data Centers, the AREP affiliate that would develop the land.
Although the first phase of the 390-unit community being built by Harrisburg-based McNaughton Homes has started to rough out the streets, Frances McNaughton told PennLive last week that no lots have yet to be sold to individual customers.
Following its initial clearance in 2004, the second and larger project, PennTerra, which was supported by a consortium headed by California-based industrialist Fred Kayne, never got off the ground.
Although it was not possible to independently verify for this article, AREP informed Middlesex officials that it has the option to purchase the land.
It’s unclear if Powerhouse has decided to move forward with the project in Pennsylvania because the company hasn’t made any public announcements about it and officials did not reply to requests for comment for this story.
However, it has hired project engineers to do initial assessments of the Middlesex site and hired Charlie Courtney, a well-known property development lawyer in south central Pennsylvania.
Additionally, at a board meeting on October 25, CEO Doug Fleit and other management made a preliminary presentation to township officials. Based on the minutes of the meeting, they received a favorable enough response to move on.
In a recent interview with PennLive, Middlesex Zoning Officer Mark Carpenter emphasized that neither party made any assurances.
However, we’re thrilled to introduce a new purpose to the area that no one had ever expected, he continued.
The fact that data centers are warehouse-like structures free of heavy-duty truck traffic, in contrast to the so-called monster warehouses that have dominated commercial development in south central Pennsylvania in recent generations, may contribute to their allure for locals.
An estimated 2,700 vehicle journeys enter and exit the Middlesex plant daily, according to a Powerhouse prediction. However, that number could likely surpass 10,000 daily trips if the land was built for traditional warehouses or the intended residential uses.
The corporation said that by replacing over 1,000 planned residences, the project would also provide a significant amount of property tax money without adding to the demands on schools, police, and other services that come with a few thousand extra inhabitants.
According to estimates given to Middlesex Township supervisors this fall, the county and township may each get an additional $10 million yearly; the Cumberland Valley School District might earn over $45 million annually.
Brad Filipovich, a land-use watchdog from the township who attended Powerhouse’s Nov. 25 introductory presentation to the Middlesex Planning Commission, told PennLive that he believes the data center’s reduced development impacts could be advantageous as long as the township conducts due diligence.
In fact, I felt it was a fairly smart idea. “We are all relieved that it won’t be a warehouse and that it won’t be the 900 homes that were originally planned there,” he said.
According to Filipovich, there are concerns about local roads like Country Club becoming overloaded and school capacity being maxed out because the municipality already has other significant residential growth projects underway.
According to Filipovich, it truly comes down to the standard of living and the capacity of these roadways. We don’t want to live in Silver Spring or Hampden, which are just under construction.
The first hyperscale data center in the area may eventually be located in this open area off Country Club Road in Middlesex Township.Charles Thompson
The project must first overcome a number of obstacles.
For starters, the township’s zoning policy is presently being revised by Middlesex supervisors. Supervisors are currently investigating the best location for data centers in the township and developing language to support them.
According to Carpenter, the finalization of the ordinance revision is not anticipated until 2025. The business would only submit land development plans once the zoning was established, allowing for the resolution of the minor issues that have caused conflict in other communities.
Some centers in Data Center Alley, a neighborhood in northern Virginia, have come under heavy fire from the locals, who have complained that the noise from the exhaust fans and rooftop chillers that run nonstop to remove excess heat from the buildings bothers them.
According to Carpenter, Powerhouse indicated that Middlesex has learnt from those early data center projects, some of which were constructed in light industrial zones that were previously created for different purposes.
As part of an industry-wide effort to be more environmentally friendly, the company has committed to installing quieter and more efficient cooling systems in its projects.
All of the planned buildings on the Middlesex site are more than 900 feet away from the nearest homes on Country Club Road, according to the sketch drawings. On the opposite side of the current tree lines and across Conodoguinet Creek are larger projects such as The Meadows and Country Manor Mobile Home Park.
The Country Club Road site is ideally qualified for tucked away, minimal impact data center development because of those factors, according to the Powerhouse study.
Residents of various communities across the country have protested data center developments because they believe they will overrun their current water and electrical systems.
PPL Electric, which is constructing a new substation west of Carlisle and repairing roughly 13 miles of an existing 500 kilovolt transmission line in the region, has already given Powerhouse encouraging indications that it can meet its Middlesex power needs.
Last week, PPL spokesperson Kelly Palmer stated that the projects will supply power to a client facility in the Carlisle area and improve the reliability of PPL Electric’s transmission system. Palmer refused to reveal the client’s identity.
According to The Meadows homeowner Filipovich, the municipality will obviously need to exercise due diligence.
“I want the township to make sure we’re not stuck with a bunch of crypto miners out there just screaming out noise all day long,” he said, adding that he wanted the township to perform its due diligence in crafting ordinance language and reviewing the plan.
According to Carpenter, the Middlesex data center project could potentially involve the construction of up to 18 distinct buildings with a combined new building capacity of up to 5 million square feet, which would be comparable to some of the biggest distribution and warehousing facilities in the area.
After it was created, Powerhouse would pitch its capabilities to other prominent figures in the tech sector.
The demand for these massive data centers will only rise as the world moves toward self-driving cars, smart refrigerators, virtual reality software, and other cloud-based technologies, Josh Levi, head of the Data Center Coalition trade group, told The Washington Post last year.
The owners of the decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear power station have already announced plans to reactivate the facility due to the rising demand for electricity brought on by the expanding needs of cloud storage and artificial intelligence-driven sectors, as previously reported by PennLive.
According to Levi, the local landscape will also include smaller edge data centers that transport self-driving cars from one place to another and are connected to larger data centers by fiber-optic connections.
The sourceAccording to www.datacentermap.com, there are currently 71 data centers operating throughout Pennsylvania, but only two are located in south central Pennsylvania: Lumen’s facility in Lancaster County and Alerify, a business off Vartan Way in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, which offers server space for a range of tenants.
Powerhouse has not described either scale.
Data centers in Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Nevada, and Kentucky have been constructed or are currently being constructed by Powerhouse. Its first project in Pennsylvania would be this one.
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Charles Thompson
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