ARCHBALD — A Texas-based developer touted tens of millions of dollars in potential annual tax revenue from a multibillion-dollar data center campus just north of Staback Park — if borough council approves the project amid community concerns.
Representatives from Archbald I LLC pitched the necessity and potential benefits of data centers to borough officials and an audience of at least 150 community members in the Valley View High School auditorium during a public hearing Wednesday night. The hearing is a requisite step in the conditional use process as council weighs a Dec. 16 application from Dallas, Texas-based Provident Realty Advisors, operating as Archbald I LLC. The proposal calls for as many as 18 two-story data centers, each up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint across about 400 acres between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road.
The real estate firm’s data center arm, Provident Data Centers, advertises on its website a portfolio of 70-plus data centers that would require 7-plus gigawatts of power across 12 states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, though company representatives testified Wednesday that only two of those are currently being developed: A 1,000-acre, 20- to 24-building project in Grand Prairie, Texas, and a 750-acre campus near Chicago in Hobart, Indiana.
Harrisburg attorney Jeffrey Esch McCombie, who represented the developer, characterized the need for data centers early in Wednesday’s hearing.
“In today’s day and age of digital innovation and ever increasing use and reliance on cloud computing and data storage, for everything from phone applications to artificial intelligence to the presentation that we have in front of you this evening, data centers are becoming increasingly more important,” he said.
Attorney Jeffrey Esch McCombie, left, Nick Farris, the director of acquisitions and director of data center development at Provident Realty Advisors, respond to questions during a public hearing at the Valley View High School in Archbald on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Wednesday’s hearing ended without a decision after Provident presented two of its five planned witnesses, who were questioned by council members, a resident and a resident’s attorney.
Provident officials did not address projected water and electricity needs, instead directing those questions to upcoming testimony at a hearing March 19 at 5 p.m.
The project is one of six proposed data center campuses in Archbald, totaling 51 individual buildings.
‘Brains of the internet’
Project manager Nick Farris, the director of acquisitions and director of data center development at Provident, stressed the necessity of data centers and why he chose land in Archbald.
“Data centers are basically the backbone or brains of the internet,” he said. “In our connected digital world now, especially with cloud computing, anything that we really do in this world runs through data centers.”
While plans in the conditional use application depict 18 data centers, McCombie said those plans are “maxed out.” He estimated it could be 16 data centers rather than 18.
“We showed the most robust potential on the property for this application that’s before you, but we anticipate it being a smaller development,” he said.
Every data center building would have 27 to 28 generators, according to engineer Adam Davis, president of Hyland Engineering. Davis was the second witness to testify on behalf of Provident, after Farris.
Although there are no specific tenants yet, Farris said his firm attracts “Fortune 50” companies that are “the largest companies that anyone would be familiar with.” He described companies behind search engines and computer operating systems — alluding to data center operators like Google and Microsoft.
Each building would employ 20 to 30 people, and the facilities would operate 24/7, according to Farris.
“Generally, it’s a boon, and that’s why so many communities have always tried to attract the data centers,” he said, eliciting jeers from the crowd that prompted Archbald Solicitor James J. O’Connor to quiet the audience.
A single data center building costs roughly $700 million, not including the actual servers inside, Farris said. Through questioning led by McCombie, Farris said the data center campus would generate around $20 million annually in property taxes for Archbald, nearly $50 million annually for Lackawanna County and nearly $100 million per year for the Valley View School District.
In response to a question from Councilman Louis Rapoch, Farris said he selected the location based on an internal review at Provident and sought out the property owners.
Provident will build the shell of the data centers, and a tenant will come in and fit it out with equipment, he said. Councilman Richard Guman prompted the response after asking how often data centers update their technology.
McCombie added that construction is two years away if the data centers move forward.
“These are high-tech facilities that will always strive to have the latest and greatest,” the attorney said.
Councilman Joseph Altier III asked whether there is a decommissioning plan for the project. Farris said it is “highly unlikely” a Fortune 50 company would leave after leasing the data centers because the buildings are “so expensive and they’re so mission critical” to the tenants. Provident would use triple net leases on the data centers, meaning the tenant pays all maintenance, taxes and insurance, with options to extend the leases to nearly two decades, he said.
Council President Dave Moran inquired if the Provident could create a decommissioning plan. The borough did the same with the former Cogen power plant, he said.
McCombie said they would investigate it ahead of the next hearing.
Archbald officials look on at the onset of a public hearing on a data center campus at the Valley View High School in Archbald on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
‘Data centers are coming’
Councilman Tom Aniska asked Farris about Provident’s other data center projects, questioning what makes a location ideal for a data center developer.
“Obviously we have a lot of concerned citizens in the audience,” Aniska said. “What has been your reception of data centers in other places where you’ve gone?”
“We’ve had positive reactions, and then we’ve had some that have not worked out,” Farris replied. “That’s part of the business, and you move on.”
Explaining why the site in Archbald is ideal, Farris said Pennsylvania is a net exporter of power, the land has access to 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt power lines, it’s a relatively flat area separated from homes, and it’s within 120 miles of Secaucus, New Jersey, which is a “pairing point” for data centers where different networks connect.
Aniska also asked what has stopped Provident from developing data centers.
“We want to go to a place that welcomes us,” Farris said, evoking a loud reaction from the crowd.
Farris continued, “We can develop it and we can make it beneficial to not only our customers, our end users, but also to the community that we come into, so if someone is steadfast against us coming into a community, these things happen,” drawing applause in the audience.
However, he countered that another community is “going to get all the benefit, and you guys aren’t going to get anything.”
“Data centers are coming,” Farris said. “We rely on data centers for our everyday needs. … They’re a necessity in life, and the decision has to come down to, ‘Do you want to benefit from that necessity?’”
Councilwoman Erin Owen probed Farris’ opinion on data centers near schools and parks.
“Well, of course, I don’t like to see anyone upset,” he said. “However, I think that this is the best data center site in this area of the country, by far.”
A woman in the crowd shouted, “Think of the children.”
“Isn’t there a missile plant next door?” Farris said, referencing Lockheed Martin’s plant on Kennedy Drive, which borders the Valley View High School property. “This looks like an office park that’s going in.”
Resident Tamara Misewicz-Healey, who formed the “Stop Archbald Data Centers” Facebook group with her husband, became a party to the Archbald I LLC hearing, which allows her to cross-examine witnesses.
She asked the developer why it benefited them to reapply for data centers through the conditional use process after already applying as principally permitted uses. Prior to Archbald Borough Council adopting new zoning regulations for data centers in November, the facilities were principally permitted in multiple zoning districts, giving them the most direct path forward, compared to the lengthier conditional use process that requires public hearings, adhering to conditions and ultimately approval from council.
McCombie said they decided they wanted to work with the borough; the conditional use regulations also allow data centers to be up to 90 feet tall rather than 70 feet under the previous zoning, with the tradeoff being larger required setbacks. The current proposed data centers would be about 202 feet north of Staback Park.
Among questions that ranged from emergency management plans to Provident’s property tax calculations, Misewicz-Healey sought confirmation as to whether the data centers would be 90 feet tall.
The height will be dependent on the tenant, Farris said.
“It could be 50 feet. It could be 55 feet,” he said. “I know one end user that has a 35-foot building height.”
Describing the seven-building Project Gravity data center campus next to Provident’s site, and the nearly 620,000-square-foot Project Boson data center across the street at the former Highway Auto Parts junkyard, Misewicz-Healey asked how they would determine who is accountable for noise issues if there’s multiple data center campuses in the same area.
“Those are questions for the noise consultant,” McCombie said.
Provident’s noise consultant did not testify Wednesday.
What’s next?
Borough officials and Provident’s representatives agreed to conclude the public hearing after just over two hours. Archbald’s solicitor announced the public hearing will resume March 19 at 5 p.m.
Next month’s meeting will include testimony from Provident’s data center engineer, a traffic engineer and a sound and noise consultant. Residents will also have the opportunity to testify before council votes.