ARCHBALD \u2014 A Texas-based developer touted tens of millions of dollars in potential annual tax revenue from a multibillion-dollar data center campus just north of Staback Park \u2014 if borough council approves the project amid community concerns.<\/p>\n
Representatives from Archbald I LLC pitched the necessity and potential benefits of data centers to borough officials and an audience of at least 150 community members in the Valley View High School auditorium during a public hearing Wednesday night. The hearing is a requisite step in the conditional use process as council weighs a Dec. 16 application from Dallas, Texas-based Provident Realty Advisors, operating as Archbald I LLC. The proposal calls for as many as 18 two-story data centers, each up to 90 feet tall with a 154,850-square-foot footprint across about 400 acres between Business Route 6 and Eynon Jermyn Road.\n<\/p>\n
The real estate firm\u2019s data center arm, Provident Data Centers, advertises on its website a portfolio of 70-plus data centers that would require 7-plus gigawatts of power across 12 states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, though company representatives testified Wednesday that only two of those are currently being developed: A 1,000-acre, 20- to 24-building project in Grand Prairie, Texas, and a 750-acre campus near Chicago in Hobart, Indiana.\n<\/p>\n
Harrisburg attorney Jeffrey Esch McCombie, who represented the developer, characterized the need for data centers early in Wednesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn today\u2019s day and age of digital innovation and ever increasing use and reliance on cloud computing and data storage, for everything from phone applications to artificial intelligence to the presentation that we have in front of you this evening, data centers are becoming increasingly more important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Attorney](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/STT-L-ARCHBALD-0213-3.jpg\")
Attorney Jeffrey Esch McCombie, left, Nick Farris, the director of acquisitions and director of data center development at Provident Realty Advisors, respond to questions during a public hearing at the Valley View High School in Archbald on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s hearing ended without a decision after Provident presented two of its five planned witnesses, who were questioned by council members, a resident and a resident\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
Provident officials did not address projected water and electricity needs, instead directing those questions to upcoming testimony at a hearing March 19 at 5 p.m.\n<\/p>\n
The project is one of six proposed data center campuses in Archbald, totaling 51 individual buildings.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u2018Brains of the internet\u2019<\/p>\n
Project manager Nick Farris, the director of acquisitions and director of data center development at Provident, stressed the necessity of data centers and why he chose land in Archbald.<\/p>\n
\u201cData centers are basically the backbone or brains of the internet,\u201d he said. \u201cIn our connected digital world now, especially with cloud computing, anything that we really do in this world runs through data centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
While plans in the conditional use application depict 18 data centers, McCombie said those plans are \u201cmaxed out.\u201d He estimated it could be 16 data centers rather than 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe showed the most robust potential on the property for this application that\u2019s before you, but we anticipate it being a smaller development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Every data center building would have 27 to 28 generators, according to engineer Adam Davis, president of Hyland Engineering. Davis was the second witness to testify on behalf of Provident, after Farris.<\/p>\n
Although there are no specific tenants yet, Farris said his firm attracts \u201cFortune 50\u201d companies that are \u201cthe largest companies that anyone would be familiar with.\u201d He described companies behind search engines and computer operating systems \u2014 alluding to data center operators like Google and Microsoft.\n<\/p>\n
Each building would employ 20 to 30 people, and the facilities would operate 24\/7, according to Farris.<\/p>\n
\u201cGenerally, it\u2019s a boon, and that\u2019s why so many communities have always tried to attract the data centers,\u201d he said, eliciting jeers from the crowd that prompted Archbald Solicitor James J. O\u2019Connor to quiet the audience.\n<\/p>\n
A single data center building costs roughly $700 million, not including the actual servers inside, Farris said. Through questioning led by McCombie, Farris said the data center campus would generate around $20 million annually in property taxes for Archbald, nearly $50 million annually for Lackawanna County and nearly $100 million per year for the Valley View School District.\n<\/p>\n
In response to a question from Councilman Louis Rapoch, Farris said he selected the location based on an internal review at Provident and sought out the property owners.<\/p>\n
Provident will build the shell of the data centers, and a tenant will come in and fit it out with equipment, he said. Councilman Richard Guman prompted the response after asking how often data centers update their technology.<\/p>\n
McCombie added that construction is two years away if the data centers move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are high-tech facilities that will always strive to have the latest and greatest,\u201d the attorney said.<\/p>\n
Councilman Joseph Altier III asked whether there is a decommissioning plan for the project. Farris said it is \u201chighly unlikely\u201d a Fortune 50 company would leave after leasing the data centers because the buildings are \u201cso expensive and they\u2019re so mission critical\u201d to the tenants. Provident would use triple net leases on the data centers, meaning the tenant pays all maintenance, taxes and insurance, with options to extend the leases to nearly two decades, he said.<\/p>\n
Council President Dave Moran inquired if the Provident could create a decommissioning plan. The borough did the same with the former Cogen power plant, he said.<\/p>\n
McCombie said they would investigate it ahead of the next hearing.<\/p>\n
![\"Archbald](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/STT-L-ARCHBALD-0213-2-rotated-1.jpg\")
Archbald officials look on at the onset of a public hearing on a data center campus at the Valley View High School in Archbald on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)
\n\u2018Data centers are coming\u2019<\/p>\n
Councilman Tom Aniska asked Farris about Provident\u2019s other data center projects, questioning what makes a location ideal for a data center developer.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we have a lot of concerned citizens in the audience,\u201d Aniska said. \u201cWhat has been your reception of data centers in other places where you\u2019ve gone?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had positive reactions, and then we\u2019ve had some that have not worked out,\u201d Farris replied. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the business, and you move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Explaining why the site in Archbald is ideal, Farris said Pennsylvania is a net exporter of power, the land has access to 230-kilovolt and 500-kilovolt power lines, it\u2019s a relatively flat area separated from homes, and it\u2019s within 120 miles of Secaucus, New Jersey, which is a \u201cpairing point\u201d for data centers where different networks connect.<\/p>\n
Aniska also asked what has stopped Provident from developing data centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to go to a place that welcomes us,\u201d Farris said, evoking a loud reaction from the crowd.<\/p>\n
Farris continued, \u201cWe can develop it and we can make it beneficial to not only our customers, our end users, but also to the community that we come into, so if someone is steadfast against us coming into a community, these things happen,\u201d drawing applause in the audience.<\/p>\n
However, he countered that another community is \u201cgoing to get all the benefit, and you guys aren\u2019t going to get anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cData centers are coming,\u201d Farris said. \u201cWe rely on data centers for our everyday needs. \u2026 They\u2019re a necessity in life, and the decision has to come down to, \u2018Do you want to benefit from that necessity?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Erin Owen probed Farris\u2019 opinion on data centers near schools and parks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, of course, I don\u2019t like to see anyone upset,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I think that this is the best data center site in this area of the country, by far.\u201d<\/p>\n
A woman in the crowd shouted, \u201cThink of the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t there a missile plant next door?\u201d Farris said, referencing Lockheed Martin\u2019s plant on Kennedy Drive, which borders the Valley View High School property. \u201cThis looks like an office park that\u2019s going in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Resident Tamara Misewicz-Healey, who formed the \u201cStop Archbald Data Centers\u201d Facebook group with her husband, became a party to the Archbald I LLC hearing, which allows her to cross-examine witnesses.\n<\/p>\n
She asked the developer why it benefited them to reapply for data centers through the conditional use process after already applying as principally permitted uses. Prior to Archbald Borough Council adopting new zoning regulations for data centers in November, the facilities were principally permitted in multiple zoning districts, giving them the most direct path forward, compared to the lengthier conditional use process that requires public hearings, adhering to conditions and ultimately approval from council.<\/p>\n
McCombie said they decided they wanted to work with the borough; the conditional use regulations also allow data centers to be up to 90 feet tall rather than 70 feet under the previous zoning, with the tradeoff being larger required setbacks. The current proposed data centers would be about 202 feet north of Staback Park.<\/p>\n
Among questions that ranged from emergency management plans to Provident\u2019s property tax calculations, Misewicz-Healey sought confirmation as to whether the data centers would be 90 feet tall.<\/p>\n
The height will be dependent on the tenant, Farris said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be 50 feet. It could be 55 feet,\u201d he said. \u201cI know one end user that has a 35-foot building height.\u201d<\/p>\n
Describing the seven-building Project Gravity data center campus next to Provident\u2019s site, and the nearly 620,000-square-foot Project Boson data center across the street at the former Highway Auto Parts junkyard, Misewicz-Healey asked how they would determine who is accountable for noise issues if there\u2019s multiple data center campuses in the same area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are questions for the noise consultant,\u201d McCombie said.<\/p>\n
Provident\u2019s noise consultant did not testify Wednesday.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
Borough officials and Provident\u2019s representatives agreed to conclude the public hearing after just over two hours. Archbald\u2019s solicitor announced the public hearing will resume March 19 at 5 p.m.\n<\/p>\n
Next month\u2019s meeting will include testimony from Provident\u2019s data center engineer, a traffic engineer and a sound and noise consultant. Residents will also have the opportunity to testify before council votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARCHBALD \u2014 A Texas-based developer touted tens of millions of dollars in potential annual tax revenue from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,2116,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-112202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-archbald","9":"tag-data-centers","10":"tag-lackawanna-county","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pennsylvania","14":"tag-scranton","15":"tag-scranton-headlines","16":"tag-scranton-news","17":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}