OLYPHANT — Borough officials are poised to make a $101 million decision on data centers.
Olyphant Borough Council will hold a special meeting next week to consider settling with a developer that is suing the town to bypass the conditional use process and build the Project Triboro data center campus off Marshwood Road and Route 247. In exchange for forgoing public hearings, the developer offers a community benefits agreement that officials say would substantially lower residents’ tax and electricity bills while giving the town more money for its police, parks and infrastructure.
Council will meet Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. at the Regal Room, 214 Lackawanna Ave., to vote to settle the lawsuit with ERCOR Triboro LLC, followed by a vote to approve a community benefits agreement, or CBA, where ERCOR would pay Olyphant $101 million over 15 years, Solicitor John Brazil said. ERCOR representatives will present at the meeting their plans for seven 80-foot-tall data centers and a substation across 470.61 acres of industrially zoned land near the borough’s outskirts. Residents can address council prior to its vote. Project Triboro would use 1 gigawatt of electricity, or 1,000 megawatts; the exact footprints of the data centers were unclear Friday.
Olyphant officials met with The Times-Tribune to discuss the significant financial windfall from a nine-figure CBA and what it means for a town with an annual municipal budget of less than $5 million. Members of Lackawanna County’s growing data center opposition movement, such as Olyphant resident Natalia Berjashi, accused elected leaders of selling out the town and depriving residents of the chance to testify at public hearings.
“This is literally selling us out,” said Berjashi, a mother of two and a member of Stop Olyphant Data Centers. “There’s no other way to interpret this — they’ve seen dollar signs, and that was it for them.”
Brazil contends the settlement is more stringent than Olyphant’s existing data center regulations.
“I would indicate two things: They weren’t sold out because the settlement requires the developer to do more than our own ordinance requires them to do. It goes above and beyond, and we are going to have a special meeting where they can present what they would like to on it,” he said. “For settling this way, we got an agreement that is a tremendous benefit to the residents of the municipality — in any settlement, there’s give and take, and this is a real positive settlement for the municipality.”
Council President Jimmy Baldan and council Vice President Robert Hudak, both of whom attended Thursday’s meeting with the newspaper, declined to comment ahead of the vote.
Sitework is underway at ERCOR Triboro’s proposed Project Triboro data center campus off Marshwood Road in Olyphant, as seen from East Scott Street on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
‘Unduly delay’
Borough council voted in April to amend its zoning ordinance to define and regulate data centers as conditional uses in the borough’s “large scale mixed commercial/manufacturing district,” or CM-2 zone, which encompasses about 1,000 acres surrounded by the Casey Highway, Route 247 and Marshwood Road. Conditional use designations require developers to testify and present evidence at public hearings proving their project meets conditions established by the municipality. Affected residents and their attorneys have the opportunity to obtain party status, allowing them to cross-examine witnesses and present their own evidence before council votes on the project.
Project Triboro falls into the east half of the industrial zone. Triboro Commerce Park, a firm managed by Charles DeNaples, the son of Keystone Sanitary Landfill co-owner Dominick DeNaples, previously proposed and withdrew an application to build seven data centers on the west half of the land. Borough council voted June 9 to settle a lawsuit with DeNaples by affirming its April vote.
Two weeks later, ERCOR Triboro LLC, using the address 207 High Point Drive, Suite 300, Victor, New York, sued Olyphant. The mandamus complaint filed June 22 asked a judge to compel the borough and its zoning officer to issue a zoning permit for their plans to build seven data centers and a substation within the footprints of four already-approved 1-million-plus-square-foot warehouses. St. Louis-based Sansone Group bought the land from DeNaples last year for $80 million.
ERCOR’s New York address corresponds with Broadstone Net Lease Inc., which describes itself as an “industrial-focused, diversified net lease” real estate investment trust on its website. According to a February investor presentation on Broadstone’s website, Project Triboro is an investment opportunity sourced from Sansone Group. The presentation describes the site’s data center potential as “garnering the attention of hyper-scalers, some of whom have submitted the unsolicited purchase offers.”
A quarterly report filed Wednesday from Broadstone indicates they have so far invested more than $154 million into Project Triboro.
Broadstone did not respond to an emailed request for comment by 5 p.m. Friday.
ERCOR argues in its June lawsuit that because it received final land development approval in March 2022 to build warehouses, it has vested approval to build Project Triboro’s data centers under Olyphant’s previous zoning, which did not regulate data centers. The lawsuit contends that the data centers should be permitted by right — not as conditional uses — because other comparable uses in the industrial zone are similarly permitted.
The lawsuit notes that Olyphant would have to hold public hearings on a conditional use application where anyone aggrieved would be allowed to participate and present evidence opposing their project, and the developer would have to create a factual record of evidence and testimony demonstrating their compliance.
“Opponents to the conditional use application would then have the opportunity to present evidence and testimony in an attempt to demonstrate that the proposed uses would have some detrimental impact beyond what is normally expected from a data center use,” ERCOR wrote in the lawsuit. “Any person objecting to the application or decision by the Borough Council could file appeals to the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania and unduly delay and prejudice the delivery of an ongoing construction project.”
Olyphant responded Aug. 28, disputing ERCOR’s arguments and asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuit.
Tentative negotiations began after the June lawsuit, though talks became more intensive over the last two months, leading to the CBA and settlement, Brazil said.
“That started the process of ‘OK, then this is something we can work out,’” he said. “Our choice is: Lose, and they don’t have any obligations, (or) go through a conditional use hearing, and they could just be subject to what’s in there, but we got more, so it kind of made sense to try to move in that direction.”
Project Triboro will be subject to land development approvals for its amended plans, Brazil said.
Sitework is underway at ERCOR Triboro’s proposed Project Triboro data center campus off Marshwood Road in Olyphant, as seen from East Scott Street on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. . (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
‘Improve Olyphant’
The CBA will bring in $101 million for Olyphant over 15 years, with milestones for issuing permits for the data centers and substation, according to a financial breakdown. The borough will also receive $416,667.67 monthly for 15 years, totaling $5 million annually.
Olyphant will receive $1.25 million for each building permit it issues ahead of construction, and $1.5 million for each occupancy permit, which the borough issues when the data centers are ready to be occupied.
ERCOR Triboro will begin by constructing its substation, paying Olyphant $1.25 million for its building permit and $1.5 million within 30 days of it receiving power, according to Brazil. When Olyphant grants a building permit for the substation, it will also receive $1.5 million for a first responders fund, plus $500,000 for police station upgrades, and $1.5 million for infrastructure, in addition to $500,000 for parks.
Olyphant will use its $416,667.67 monthly payments for a “community energy and school tax fund” intended to reduce electricity and school tax bills. Olyphant will begin receiving the payments 30 days after issuing the building permit for the substation.
The school tax fund will offer residential homeowners up to $1,500 toward their property tax bills for the Mid Valley School District, paid directly to the tax collector, Brazil said. For anyone whose bill is less than $1,500, the borough will completely cover it, he said.
Other than contributions to school tax bills, the Mid Valley School District will not receive money from the CBA.
In 2019, Olyphant, Mid Valley and Lackawanna County approved a 10-year Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance term for the Triboro site when it was proposed as a nearly 1,000-acre warehousing park. Under the LERTA, Project Triboro will pay full property taxes on the land but only 5% on buildings initially, increasing by 5% each year for 10 years. After the 10th year, it will pay full property taxes on its data centers.
Overall, Brazil said the funds and project will improve Olyphant’s workforce, infrastructure and recreation.
Borough engineer Lou LaFratte pointed out that having additional money available will allow Olyphant to tackle projects that it would have otherwise needed to wait for grant funding to address.
“It’s going to be used to improve Olyphant Borough,” LaFratte said. “That’s the overall sum of what it’s for.”
‘Above and beyond’
Olyphant officials touted that the settlement and CBA provide additional protections beyond what is in the borough’s April zoning amendment.
Brazil did not believe they were going to resolve the lawsuit, but after discussing it with ERCOR, “The long and the short of it is they complied above and beyond with every single requirement in our conditional use ordinance,” the solicitor said.
The ordinance requires a water study but not a closed-loop system, Brazil said. Closed-loop cooling systems require less water than other cooling methods. The borough wanted them to use closed-loop cooling, and they will, Brazil said.
Though it was not in the ordinance, ERCOR will be required to enclose its backup generators in a building to reduce sound, and they will minimize testing to 30 minutes once every month, he said. ERCOR also agreed to adhere to Olyphant’s more stringent commercial noise requirements, rather than the industrial zone’s more permissive noise guidelines, requiring noise to be limited to 65 decibels at the data center campus’s property line during the day, and 60 decibels at night, Brazil and LaFratte said.
However, ERCOR’s generators will not be held to the highest emissions standards under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, known as Tier 4 generators. Instead, they will use Tier 2, Brazil said.
“We did have the discussion on Tier 4. As most people know, the cost of those are pretty — I think generators run between $1 million and $3 million for the Tier 4,” he said.
The borough pushed hard for the developer to use Tier 4, he said.
“They weren’t amenable to that because they felt that Tier 2 would be sufficient based upon the distance,” Brazil said, adding that Tier 4 generators also require longer reliability testing than Tier 2.
The borough did not have exact figures for how many generators Project Triboro would use, but with generators ranging from 2.5 to 3 megawatts each, at 1,000 megawatts, Project Triboro could use anywhere from 333 to about 400 generators.
If they intend to use batteries, also known as battery energy storage systems, the settlement agreement stipulates that they have to have a battery fire suppression system, Brazil said.
ERCOR will also test for low-frequency sounds, which Olyphant’s zoning ordinance didn’t provide for, according to Brazil.
“The major complaints that (residents) had have been addressed,” he said.
Olyphant can require ERCOR to conduct a sound study for every data center it completes to ensure it complies with their noise standards, and the borough can conduct its own studies to confirm ERCOR’s findings, Brazil said.
Although ERCOR will not be required to get its electricity from Olyphant’s municipal system like the borough’s data center zoning requires, the CBA will allow the borough to reduce electricity bills for residents, Brazil said.
Upgrading the borough’s electric system and building a substation would cost between $400 million and $500 million, with a study alone costing around $100 million, LaFratte said. The developer would have to pay for the upgrades, but the borough was unsure whether they would have to pay for the study, Brazil added, noting the borough wouldn’t be able to borrow $100 million to put up for the study.
‘Price of silence’
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, who previously spoke out against data centers in Olyphant, called the settlement abhorrent and unconscionable Friday, emphasizing his anger toward the decision.
“I think it’s a disgrace — I think $101 million now apparently is the price of silence,” he said. “You have seven massive data center buildings. You have the substation. You have potentially hundreds of backup generators, 300 to 400, pumping emissions into the air. You have enormous questions about noise, public health, environmental impacts, the quality of life surrounding Olyphant and that whole community, and rather than subject this project to the full scrutiny of the conditional use process, the borough apparently is prepared to take the money and surrender the entire process.”
It’s not responsible government, it’s complete capitulation, Gaughan said.
“What kind of precedent does it set that anybody with deep-enough pockets can sue a borough, negotiate behind closed doors, and then come out with this agreement that effectively sidelines the very residents that local government exists to represent?” he said.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan stressed the cumulative affects of data centers during an Olyphant council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Residents have spent months fighting to have their voices heard, he said, questioning why they weren’t involved in negotiating the agreement.
“These people have families. They have jobs. They’re devoting so much of their time and so much of their efforts to understanding these projects and how it’s going to shape the future generations of Olyphant, the Midvalley and this county, and then the council is going to do this,” Gaughan said. “This is so absurd. It has me sick to my stomach.”
Eva Rappenglueck and her husband, Damian Drutherosky, have lived in Olyphant for five years, raising their 5-year-old daughter. Rappenglueck is one of the founding members of Stop Olyphant Data Centers.
She said she felt sickened learning about the planned settlement and proposed CBA.
“There is no sum that these companies could offer that would be worth them building with no conditional use or public hearings,” she said, describing the decision as selling out Olyphant. “What is the point in having a freshly paved street or a refurbished park when nobody wants to go outside or be in town at all because of everything that we’re suffering from this company?”
Olyphant resident Eva Rappenglueck, a core member of the Stop Olyphant Data Center movement, holds a “We the People” sign and reacts to public comment during a council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Residents were routinely reassured by the borough that they would have the opportunity to address data centers at public hearings, Rappenglueck said. She planned to seek party status to cross-examine data center representatives.
“A true community benefits agreement would have maybe — here’s an idea — actually involved the community,” she said. “There are multiple members of the community, myself included, that have made it overwhelmingly clear to every council member that we would be more than happy to meet up to discuss what’s happening, just share generalized information, and work together in any form to see what we could do here to make some sort of improvement, and it’s just a complete slap in the face.”
Gaughan, Rappenglueck and Berjashi all said they hope for a massive turnout at Thursday’s meeting.
For Berjashi, who frequents local data center meetings with her husband, Halil, it feels like everything residents have advocated for for months was discarded.
“They probably think that they are having the best interest of the community because obviously the money that’s going to come into the community, it’s something that they’ve probably never seen before,” Berjashi said. “But (the) community has been coming to the meetings over and over again saying that, for us, the benefits are not there. The downside of what’s going to happen to our community outweighs the benefit, and it’s not even a question.”
Olyphant resident Natalia Berjashi holds a “We the People” sign during a council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Olyphant resident Natalia Berjashi asks borough officials, “Will you allow data centers to scar this community, to rob this community, or will you fight for this community?” during a council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
Olyphant resident Halil Berjashi asks the crowd to raise their hand if they oppose council’s vote to resolve a lawsuit until they more details during a council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
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Olyphant resident Natalia Berjashi holds a “We the People” sign during a council meeting in the Municipal Building in Olyphant on Tuesday, June 9, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY / STAFF PHOTO)
“It’s important for the community to face developers and express their concerns,” she said.
She hopes council thinks of the residents when it votes next week.
“This is going to be their legacy,” she said of council. “They will be remembered for this.”