The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce hosted the tour of the so-called ‘Data Center Alley.’

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. — Elected officials and economic development leaders from Lackawanna County took a trip to a place known as “Data Center Alley” on Wednesday. 

The goal—to see the industry at work for themselves.

The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce arranged the trip to Loudoun County, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC.

The trip was meant for local officials dealing with the development of data centers in our area. There were representatives from Jessup and Archbald boroughs, the North Pocono School District, State Representative Kyle Mullins’ office, and economic development and construction companies in Lackawanna County. 

For most of them, it was their first time seeing data centers up close.

“Right now we’re in a country club that abuts a golf course, and I see data centers around us, I also see wildlife, I see trees, I see people,” Archbald borough manager Dan Markey said, “I heard that the property values here are the highest that they’ve ever been.” 

Over lunch, representatives from Loudoun County touted the economic benefits of the industry.

This year, Loudoun County will bring in a billion dollars in tax revenue from its 200 data centers. That exceeds the county’s total yearly budget. 

Part of the reason they bring in so much money is because Virginia has a personal property tax that allows the county to tax a data center every time they upgrade their equipment inside these massive buildings. 

Pennsylvania does not currently have such a tax, and creating one would require the state legislature.

‘I mean, we’re almost 20 years in, so we’ve learned a lot of lessons, but I think the most important lesson I have is to have that transparency,” said Loudoun County’s economic development director Buddy Rizer.

Rizer speaks about data centers all over the country and preaches the importance of local zoning laws. 

“Now there are some things, don’t get them near homes, you know, do your best to have a buffer there because that’s important, that’s been one of the biggest challenges that we’ve had,” he told Newswatch 16.

That is a challenge specifically facing the officials from Archbald. The borough amended its zoning law to place restrictions on data centers just a few weeks ago. But four data center proposals are grandfathered in under the old zoning law, and some of those would be close to neighborhoods and parks. 

Archbald and its neighboring boroughs in Lackawanna County’s mid-valley are the hotbed of data center development in our area. 

“Quality of life of our residents in Jessup is our top priority and always will be, and realistically, it’s what these folks are kind enough and generous enough to bring us in to talk to us about today, location matters,” said Jessup borough councilman Curt Camoni.

Camoni came on the trip not just as an elected official from Jessup. He also leads the Lackawanna County Visitors Bureau and sits on the Chamber’s board. 

“These things aren’t good or bad; if you situate any business poorly, it can be a bad situation. So, protecting the residents, quality of life are our top priority, and we’re learning how to do that, a little bit, today,” Camoni added.

After the meeting, it was back on the bus for a tour of data center alley. Guiding us was Honesdale-native David Tolson, who owns a company called DBT Data. 

“DBT Data does powered land development, so we buy land, we zone it for data center use, we bring in power, and we make it shovel-ready,” Tolson said.

Tolson is involved with a potential data center project in our area, but because of a non-disclosure agreement, he couldn’t tell Newswatch 16 where. But, he did say the current zoning laws in Lackawanna County are the most difficult he’s ever had to navigate as a developer.

“It’s almost prohibitive, so we’re a small nimble company, and this is what we do: we take the economic risk. But I don’t think you would see any of what you would call the “Hyper-scalers” or major cloud providers even attempt this process,” he said.

The officials here holding the keys to data center development in northeastern Pennsylvania took that message to heart.

As the group got off the bus to explore, many of the people we spoke to were struck by how little noise the data centers make. And how zoning laws in Loudoun County require developers to make the building look more attractive than the empty shells of servers that data centers really are.

The officials in Virginia told us that Data Center Alley is at capacity. Land is selling for as much as $7 million an acre.

So, it seems, data centers are moving north. 

And before the group went back north, David Tolson told us why northeastern and central Pennsylvania is so attractive to data center developers. “The power is available, it’s that simple. The country’s out of power, the world’s out of power, and there is excess power in the grid in northeastern Pennsylvania, and that’s why the users are coming to that region,” Tolson said.

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