Olyphant will no longer hold a special meeting Thursday to consider settling a lawsuit with the Project Triboro data center developer in exchange for a 15-year community benefits agreement worth $101 million due to looming legal action from an adjacent property owner.
In a statement released Tuesday night, borough council said it received notice from its attorney that the adjoining property owner is filing an emergency petition in court Wednesday to intervene in the litigation.
“Because of that and the ramifications it would not be prudent to continue forward with the hearing (scheduled) for Thursday,” according to the statement.
Council had scheduled the special meeting to vote on a settlement with ERCOR Triboro LLC. The developer sued the borough in June in a bid to bypass the public hearing process in order to build seven data centers and a substation within the footprints of four already-approved 1-million-plus-square-foot warehouses across nearly 471 acres off Marshwood Road and Route 247. In exchange for settling the lawsuit, Olyphant would receive a $101 million community benefits agreement that paid the borough $5 million annually for 15 years, in addition to other $1-million-plus financial incentives tied to permitting milestones for each data center and the substation.
As part of the settlement, the developer agreed to each of Olyphant’s restrictions on data centers, even to more stringent standards in some cases, borough officials said last week when announcing the settlement. Olyphant planned to use the funds to reduce residents’ school property tax and electricity bills.
The proposed settlement drew immediate ire from local data center opponents.
Olyphant previously settled a lawsuit with Triboro Commerce Park in June by confirming that council had adopted a zoning amendment in April to conditionally allow data centers across nearly 1,000 acres encompassing both the Triboro Commerce Park and ERCOR Triboro properties.The commerce park applied for and withdrew plans for seven data centers prior to the settlement.
The June settlement stemmed from a chaotic April meeting when council considered an amendment to define data centers and associated uses while restricting them as conditional uses in the borough’s “large scale mixed commercial/manufacturing district,” or CM-2 zone, on land surrounded by the Casey Highway, Route 247 and Marshwood Road. Council initially adopted but then denied the zoning amendment amid uproar from the crowd.
Triboro Commerce Park’s lawsuit asked the court to recognize council’s initial vote that adopted data center regulations, which council ultimately did.
Two weeks after council settled the Triboro Commerce Park litigation, attorneys for ERCOR Triboro, 207 High Point Drive, Suite 300, Victor, New York, filed a June 22 mandamus complaint asking 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.
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.
As of Tuesday night, there were no emergency petitions filed in the ERCOR Triboro litigation.
Check back for updates.