Data center campuses could blanket at least 14% of Archbald, covering more than 2.4 square miles of the borough — an area roughly the size of the neighboring town of Mayfield.
Archbald received its sixth proposal for a data center campus Jan. 26, according to the borough’s website. Green Mountain 6 LLC, through a Pittsburgh law firm, filed a conditional use application to build seven buildings on nearly 271 acres of land currently owned by the Stavola Quarry. Located just off the Casey Highway, the site would situate the “Project Green” data center campus less than a mile from Lackawanna County’s Aylesworth Park.
Lackawanna County’s rapidly expanding data center industry originated in Archbald just over a year ago when representatives for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus approached the borough with a $2.1 billion pitch for an artificial intelligence data center campus. The borough has since become a hotbed for developers interested in tapping into the high-tension power lines and fiber optic internet lines running through the town.
Outside Archbald, developers have active proposals to build data centers in Clifton and Covington townships, Dickson City and Jessup; Ransom Twp. recently rejected plans for a data center campus, though an appeal is likely, and a developer applied for and subsequently withdrew an application to build data centers in Blakely.
What is Project Green?
Green Mountain 6 LLC filed a conditional use application last month seeking approval from Archbald Borough Council to build seven two-story, 138,000-square-foot buildings with back-up generator yards, a PPL-owned switchyard and a customer substation along an L-shaped piece of land immediately east of the Casey Highway and less than a mile south of Aylesworth Park. The buildings would be up to 65 feet tall, though they can be as tall as 90 feet, and there would be an estimated 28 generators per building, according to a preliminary sound study.
The data centers would be built on previously quarried land, with the entire campus spanning 270.88 acres, or about 11.8 million square feet. A 230-kilovolt PPL transmission line runs down the western side of the property, giving the data centers a power source.
The preliminary sound study accompanying the conditional use application estimates there would be 40 air-cooled, roof-mounted cooling systems called chillers on top of each data center, with an assumed sound output of 101 decibels. That’s about as loud as a snowmobile or motorcycle, according to the National Hearing Conservation Association. Sustained exposure to 90 to 95 decibels may result in hearing loss, according to the association.
However, the data center’s sound study concludes that the project can comply with Archbald’s noise limits of 45 decibels at the nearest residences around Rock and Hill streets, though it notes that emergency generators are considered exempt between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. during power outages or routine testing and maintenance. If the data centers have to further reduce their sound levels, they can use additional mitigation for the air-cooled chillers to reduce the noise by up to 10 decibels.
The property line would be about 1,000 feet from the nearest homes on Rock Street and Hill Street, with the closest data center being more than 2,500 feet away, according to the sound study. The property line is also 3,600 feet from Aylesworth Park.
The application includes a will-serve letter from Pennsylvania American Water, but the request isn’t for water to cool the data centers. The attached letter from PAW, dated Jan. 16, acknowledges the request for Project Green to use up to 14,000 gallons per day, but the conditional use application notes the water is for domestic use, such as in sinks and toilets, and not cooling.
“It has not been determined whether water will be needed for cooling purposes or what quantities for that purpose will be requested. If water is needed for cooling purposes, it will be coordinated with PAWC,” according to the application. “If PAWC is unable to provide the requested demand, alternative measures will be pursued but does not include groundwater or surface water withdrawals.”
Water demands for other proposed data centers in Archbald range from about 360,000 gallons per day to a maximum of 3.3 million gallons per day.
The proposed site for Project Green allows data centers as conditional uses after borough council adopted a zoning ordinance to regulate data centers in November, which means the developer will be required to attend a public hearing while adhering to numerous conditions contained in the ordinance.
Project Green would be built across an L-shaped band near the Casey Highway, which is located in mining, coal mining, resource conservation and commercial/light industrial zoning districts, according to the conditional use application. Tinton Falls, New Jersey-based Stavola has owned the land for nearly five years after buying close to 1,400 acres from Silverbrook Anthracite Inc. of Laflin for $17.355 million, according to a July 2021 property transaction.
Green Mountain 6 entered into a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement with Stavola on Sept. 3 to buy close to 271 acres.
The campus would use Salem Road for ingress and egress, generating just over 1,400 daily trips, according to the plans.
Who’s behind Project Green?
The application provides little information on Green Mountain 6 LLC. The form lists the company as the property owner, but in the care of law firm Reed Smith LLP, 225 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh. The application includes contact information for an attorney with the law firm, Jeff Wilhelm. Wilhelm’s biography on his law firm website describes him as having “advised clients in obtaining municipal zoning amendments and entitlements in the natural gas, solar, and data center industries.”
Attempts to reach Wilhelm were unsuccessful Friday.
Project Green has multiple similarities to the Project Gravity data center campus, which is also proposed in Archbald by data center development firm Western Hospitality Partners. Like Project Green, Project Gravity also wants to build seven two-story, 138,000-square-foot buildings, but between Business Route 6 and the Eynon Jermyn Road. Project Gravity would cover about 180 acres, or 7.84 million square feet.
Green Mountain 6 registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State on July 31 using the same Colorado-based law firm as Project Gravity, according to a certificate of organization obtained by The Sunday Times.
For both projects, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, 675 15th St., Suite 2900, Denver, was identified as the organizer behind the companies, with paralegal Meredith Whatley signing the paperwork. That same law firm is also tied to the limited liability company purchasing the Valley View Estates mobile home park — Archbald Developer II LLC — to make way for Project Gravity’s data centers.
Justin Moceri, an engineer from Kimley-Horn, represented Project Gravity at a state Department of Environmental Protection-organized meeting in Archbald last month, and multiple letters in Project Green’s application are addressed to Moceri. Scranton law firm Rinaldi & Poveromo PC, which represents Project Gravity as well as other local data center projects, also represents Project Green.
The company behind Project Gravity, Western Hospitality Partners, operating as Archbald 25 Developer LLC, has explored data centers in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.
Archbald 25 Developer LLC first filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on Oct. 10, 2024, as Western Hospitality Partners — Jermyn 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, matching the land development application in Archbald.
What about other data centers?
If every data center proposed in Archbald is approved, the town would have nearly 8.8 million square feet of solely data centers — excluding other infrastructure — roughly equal to 152 football fields.
The Sunday Times analyzed conditional use and land development applications submitted by data centers in Archbald to determine their total size and how much land they would encompass in the borough.
The properties slated for all six data centers, which would include buffers, electric infrastructure like switchyards, interior roads and parking lots, security administration buildings, and water towers, add up to just over 68 million square feet, or about 2.44 square miles of Archbald’s 17.09 square miles of land, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, the entire borough of Mayfield is 2.4 square miles.
Archbald’s other four data center campuses are:
Project Boson: Formerly called the Archbald Data & Energy Center, Project Boson will remove the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard on Eynon Jermyn Road and build a 619,925-square-foot data center in its place, according to an October land development plan. The project initially proposed building three data centers, each under 70 feet tall with a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint, but it subsequently merged those buildings into one larger facility. The entire property is about 3.07 million square feet, or 70.54 acres.
Archbald I LLC South: The proposed data center campus would place data centers 200 feet — the minimum required setback — from Staback Park, siting the facilities near both the borough park and Archbald Pothole State Park. Each data center would be two stories and up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint; the buildings would include equipment such as servers, storage systems, network switches, emergency backup generators, batteries, cooling and ventilation systems, and fire suppression systems, according to a Dec. 15 conditional use application. Potential uses include telecommunications systems, storage systems, internet systems and artificial intelligence. Each building would have a nearly 75,000-square-foot generator yard, and the campus would have three electrical substations on the northern end of the property near high-tension power lines. It would cover 17.46 million square feet, or 400.76 acres.
Archbald I LLC North: Archbald I LLC’s second, smaller campus would have four data center buildings just north of Project Gravity on the same swath of land between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road, according to an October zoning permit application. Like the larger project, each building would have a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint, but they would be up to 70 feet tall, rather than 55 feet. Plans show the main access road entering near the juncture of Eynon Jermyn Road and Washington Avenue, with a second, smaller road extending off Lackawanna Street in Jermyn. The project would build data centers near homes in Jermyn, including those along Lackawanna Street and Gibson Street. The campus would encompass a nearly 2.9 million-square-foot lot, or just shy of 66 acres, with around 1.5 million square feet of impervious space. It would have 160 parking spaces, and the land is zoned general commercial. The smaller campus is about 2.86 million square feet, or 65.7 acres.
Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus: With 14 data centers, each 202,340 square feet and rising to 80 feet tall across two stories, Wildcat Ridge would cover more than 574 mountainside acres, or just over 25 million square feet, along Business Route 6 and extending up Route 247, or Wildcat Road, according to a Dec. 15 conditional use application. The campus would require up to 3.3 million gallons of water per day from Lake Scranton during the hottest weather, and it would use up to 1,600 megawatts of power — more than the entire Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas-fired power plant in Jessup can produce if it were connected directly to the data centers. It was previously proposed to have a housing community with nearly 2,000 multifamily residential units, an additional 120 residential lots and 1.2 million square feet of commercial space. The site would feature 316,000 square feet of commercial space, which a company representative said at a recent public hearing could include “Trader Joe’s, or something like that.”
Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan attended a Jan. 28 public hearing in Archbald for the Wildcat Ridge campus, where he testified to urge borough officials to consider the countywide impacts of data centers while comparing their effects to the scars of the coal mining industry still marring the local landscape.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan expresses his concerns about proposed data centers during the Archbald Borough Council’s public hearing at Valley View High School on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
He called last week for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass and Gov. Josh Shapiro to sign “legislation establishing a two-year statewide moratorium on new data center development and major expansion.”
Doing so would allow the state to conduct an “independent statewide impact assessment on grid reliability, water use, noise, land use and emergency services strain,” establish enforceable standards statewide and “ensure ratepayers are protected from cost-shifting,” among other benefits, he said during the commissioners meeting.
Gaughan wants the board of commissioners to send a letter this coming week to the governor and state legislative leaders requesting the moratorium.
The commissioner reiterated his concerns in a phone interview Friday afternoon as Project Green looks to build data centers less than a mile from the county-owned Aylesworth Park.
“Aylesworth is one of the most beautiful parks that we have,” he said. “To have a massive industrial complex in a data center next to it is just unacceptable. … I just don’t think it should be overshadowed by a data center. It should remain what it was intended to be, which is a place for children, families and open space, not the backdrop to industrial sprawl.”
“People need to continue to speak out about it,” he said. “It’s just not right.”
Lackawanna County should not become a “sacrifice zone” for billion dollar tech companies to “chase cheap land and quick approvals,” Gaughan said, citing the water and electricity demands, as well as the large clusters of diesel backup generators that data centers require.
Compiling the projects proposed not just in Archbald but throughout Lackawanna County, data centers will change the entire makeup of the county, he said.
“I lose sleep over thinking about what our county is going to look like in 20 or 30 years if all these are allowed to go through,” Gaughan said.
Jeff Horvath, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Upcoming data center meetings
Midvalley communities will hold two meetings pertaining to data centers over the next week.
Archbald Borough Council will hold a public hearing Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Valley View High School auditorium, 1 Columbus Drive, Archbald, to consider a conditional use application for Archbald I LLC’s larger south campus, according to public notices published Jan. 25 and Feb. 1 in The Sunday Times.
Dickson City Borough Council will hold a public hearing Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at the Dickson City Civic Center, 935 Albert St., Dickson City, to consider an ordinance regulating data centers. Doors will open at 5:15 p.m., and borough council will hold a special meeting at 7 to consider enacting the ordinance, according to public notices published Jan. 29 and Feb. 4 in The Times-Tribune.
— FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY