Hearing offers closer look at proposed data center campus in Archbald

The Archbald community will get its closest look yet Tuesday at a data center campus proposed for Eynon Jermyn Road.

The state Department of Environmental Protection and the developer behind the Project Gravity data center campus will give presentations followed by a question-and-answer session with residents during a public information session from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Valley View High School, 1 Columbus Drive, Archbald. The DEP is hosting the meeting as it considers permit applications from Archbald 25 Developer LLC — a New York City-based developer looking to build seven data center buildings, a substation and associated infrastructure and facilities across 180-plus acres between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6.

The DEP is reviewing applications for a water obstruction and encroachment joint permit to allow it to fill in wetlands and waterways, as well as a general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which would allow for earthmoving on the site, according to the department. The joint permit application, which the DEP posted online, is for both a Pennsylvania Chapter 105 water obstruction and encroachment permit and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers section 404 permit. An attached determination letter from the Army Corps of Engineers notes that the wetlands and waterways do not meet the definitions to fall under its jurisdiction, leaving any jurisdiction to the DEP.

Archbald 25 LLC filed with the Pennsylvania Department of State on Oct. 10, 2024, as Western Hospitality Partners – Jermyn LLC, later changing its name to Archbald 25 Developer on April 2 and using the address 80 Broad St., Floor 18, New York, New York. Abie Kassin, who uses a Western Hospitality Partners email address, is listed as the client contact in the application, which provides the same Broad Street address in New York City. An aquatic resources memorandum attached to the application addresses Kassin as managing partner of Archbald 25 Developer LLC.

Kassin is also the managing director of New York City-based Meridian Investment Sales, according to its website. Meridian Capital Group describes itself online as “a leading national advisor in commercial real estate finance, investment sales, and retail leasing.”

The developer initially submitted plans to Archbald’s planning commission April 2, describing the project as seven two-story buildings, each 135,000 square feet per floor, in a subdivision and land development application, but only showing six data centers in an accompanying concept plan. New plans and accompanying project descriptions in the company’s joint permit application feature seven two-story data centers, each 138,000 square feet per floor and up to 70 feet tall. Project Gravity would also have a substation, a switching station and a 1-million-gallon above-ground storage tank for noncontact cooling water that would be adjacent to a water treatment trailer.

“The purpose of the project is to construct a data center, which will provide a secure, resilient, and scalable environment for housing critical computing infrastructure, ensuring uninterrupted availability of data, applications, and digital services,” according to the application.

The data center campus surrounds the Valley View Estates mobile home park on Eynon Jermyn Road. In July, the park’s roughly three dozen residents were notified their community was set to be sold to Archbald Developer II LLC, with an anticipated transfer of ownership taking place April 15.

A “significant portion” of the project area was strip mined with forested regrowth, and deep mining also occurred on the site, according to a project narrative in the application.

The project involves disturbing two stream channels, including Callender Gap Creek, six wetlands and 31 open bodies of water, although the 31 open bodies of water appear to be man-made features resulting from the past mining in the area, including strip mine pits, subsidences and smaller excavations such as test pits, according to an attached environmental assessment from engineering firm ARM Group LLC. The streams, wetlands and open bodies of water are not connected to the Lackawanna River, according to the assessment. The two streams are isolated segments that only flow intermittently and because of precipitation, and they do not drain out of the site but rather into unreclaimed strip mine pits, ARM wrote in the assessment. Developing the data center campus will permanently impact 2.24 acres of wetlands and 459 linear feat of isolated stream channels.

The developer would buy mitigation credits toward a wetlands restoration project to offset the impacts.

The data center campus would be in the range of the northern long-eared bat, a federally endangered species; the tricolored bat, a proposed federal endangered species; the monarch butterfly, a federally proposed threatened species; and the Northeastern bulrush, a federally endangered species of plant, according to the application. A botanist determined the bulrush was not present, and while an onsite investigation found two potential bat hibernacula — shelters where bats would hibernate for the winter — a bat biologist later determined they were not suitable for bats to hibernate and would not negatively impact potential winter bat habitats. Still, Project Gravity agreed to seasonally restrict tree cutting, only chopping down trees from Nov. 15 through March 31.

The DEP encourages anyone who plans to ask a question during the meeting Tuesday to submit a written notice of intent with the question to department spokeswoman Patricia Monahan at pamonahan@pa.gov. People will be limited to one question; anyone attending will have the opportunity to ask a question, but those who preregister will be prioritized on the agenda. The department is also accepting written comments on Project Gravity’s water obstruction and encroachment joint permit application until Jan. 20. Send written comments to the attention of Pamela Kania, P.E., program manager, Waterways and Wetlands Program, DEP Northeast Regional Office, 2 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701-1915 or by email to ra-epww-nero@pa.gov.

In the event of inclement weather, the meeting will be rescheduled to Jan. 12.