ARCHBALD — Project Gravity’s first face-to-face meeting with residents opened on a contentious note Wednesday as a leader of Stop Archbald Data Centers clashed with data center developers over previous plans to purchase the Valley View Estates mobile home park bordering the proposed campus on Eynon Jermyn Road.
“They’re our poorest, most vulnerable community members. They have gotten no answer on what you guys are doing,” said Tamara Misewicz-Healey, co-founder of the data center opposition group. “Their lives have been hell for a year. Are they going to be evicted? … They’re scared.”
“Right now, we’re not doing anything,” Corscale Data Centers Executive Vice President of Business Development Erik Draaisma replied as residents watched the exchange, adding, “I’m not currently planning on buying it.”
The remainder of the two-hour community information session was markedly more passive as at least 100 residents filed through the Archbald Borough Building. The third-floor gymnasium was lined with about two dozen displays depicting Project Gravity’s plans, including renderings, noise controls, stormwater management, utilities, tax impacts, employment opportunities and batteries. About 20 representatives from Corscale and affiliated companies, including engineers, contractors, a fire-safety expert, stood alongside the large poster boards, answering questions and trying to address community concerns.
“I know I’m not going to change everyone’s mind, but I can see people coming in and seeing us as villains, and as they work their way down, seeing us as humans,” Draaisma said. “They may still not like it, and they may go home still not liking it, and that’s their prerogative, but I just want to put ourselves out there saying we have nothing to hide, come ask questions. We want to do this right, we want to show up. We have a reputation to protect.”
Local contractors dotted the crowd and spoke with representatives of Project Gravity. One of the project’s posters projected multiple years of construction followed by 300 to 325 jobs operating the data centers, with salaries ranging from $40,000-$50,000 for security to $150,000 for site operations managers.
Representatives of other locally proposed data centers and power plants inspected the displays, including people with Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus above Business Route 6 and the 400-megawatt Essential Energy LLC power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road.
Residents in attendance wore yellow “Stop Data Centers” T-shirts with “Citizens for Responsible Zoning” printed in large black letters on the back.
Speaking at the end of the information session as the room began to clear, Draaisma called attention to one of the shirts.
“I agree with what’s on the T-shirts — responsible zoning, and that’s where this all starts,” he said. “We didn’t roll in here and pick a piece of land and have it rezoned, right? By the time we were involved with this project, by the time the project even became a project, 2023, the zoning clearly says data center.”
Project Gravity, whose data centers would be less than 300 feet from the closest residential property lines, filed its initial plans in Archbald for seven data centers in a general commercial zoning district between Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6 in April 2025. The filing predating the borough’s November 2025 zoning amendment that regulated data centers by removing their principal permitted use designation and making them conditional uses in multiple overlay districts instead. Conditional uses require public hearings and approval from council.
As a principal permitted use, Project Gravity has a more direct path forward, only requiring approval at the borough level from the Archbald Planning Commission.
Misewicz-Healey challenged the project’s commercial zoning as she questioned Corscale representatives about previous plans to purchase the Valley View Estates mobile home park. In August 2025, about three dozen residents there received letters notifying them that Valley View Estates would be sold effective April 15. The sale never materialized. Operating as US Gravity Purchaser, a partnership involving Corscale and investment firm Affinius Capital closed on the 186-acre parcel in December.
“Why were you trying to (buy it)?” she asked.
“Because obviously it’s a neighboring site. There’s discussion around what to do for these people,” Draaisma said. “I can continue my project and leave these people alone. I don’t need them to go anywhere or do anything. They can be there, and I can just leave them alone.”
“The question is: If we are to help them, how do I do that? Because if I just say, ‘Hey, I’m going to buy this and I’m going to relocate you somewhere,’ well, that’s not helpful,” he said.
Misewicz-Healey said they best way to help the mobile home park residents would be to put the project in an industrial zone.
“I can’t do that,” Draaisma responded.
Data center campus representatives discussed plans last week at a planning commission meeting, where more than a dozen Lackawanna County residents opposed the development. On Wednesday, Draaisma said his company wanted to have conversations with the community outside of a formal meeting.
“The questions I appreciate most are the ones where I can help take a general sense of anxiety, break it down, and help people break it down into some tangible items, and then talk about those,” he said. “Often it comes down to the typical ones: water, power, safety, noise, fire safety, and once you break it down, you can start to address it a little bit, and then you see people going from anxious to less anxious.”
Stopping as she perused displays of data centers tucked behind neighborhoods, Archbald resident Jane Harrison said she didn’t plan to attend the meeting because she’s “totally against what’s happening here.” She decided to come anyway to hear what Project Gravity had to say.
“I’m not impressed,” said the 68-year-old lifelong resident, who worries about the size of the 180-plus acre campus and its noise. “I’m not interested in the information they want to give us, but I’ll gather some. (It’s) not going to change our mind, in my mind.”
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Who represented Corscale?
Corscale Data Center’s community information session posted employees and affiliated companies at stations throughout the Archbald Borough Building’s third-floor gymnasium.
Corscale’s in-house representatives directly responsible for various aspects of Project Gravity. Those employees encompassed: development/construction, logistics, power and batteries, operations, mechanical engineering, site planning and traffic.
Contractors and partners who served as subject-matter experts included representatives from:
Kimley-Horn: civil engineering and landscaping.
ARM Group: environmental, geotechnical and wetlands.
Gensler: architectural.
Arup: sound management.
Suffolk: general contractor/labor and employment.
Ravenvolt: Battery energy storage systems.
Fire & Risk Alliance: fire protection and risk management.