{"id":144265,"date":"2026-03-21T01:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144265\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:17:08","slug":"data-center-developer-applies-for-power-plant-on-archbalds-eynon-jermyn-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/144265\/","title":{"rendered":"Data center developer applies for power plant on Archbald’s Eynon Jermyn Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local data center developer wants to build a power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald less than 1,000 feet from Staback Park and about half a mile from the Valley View Intermediate School.\n<\/p>\n

Developer Jim Marzolino signed a zoning permit application dated March 12 for a 491,811-square-foot electric power generating plant on the west side of Eynon Jermyn Road. The proposed power plant site is across from the Highway Auto Parts junkyard where Marzolino applied last year to build a nearly 620,000-square-foot data center known as Project Boson. The Times-Tribune obtained the power plant zoning application and an accompanying site plan via a Right to Know Law request filed with the borough.\n<\/p>\n

There are six data center campuses proposed in Archbald, amounting to 51 individual data centers. The majority of those facilities are sited in a less than a mile-long stretch of Eynon Jermyn Road and Business Route 6, spanning from Staback Park and the neighboring Archbald Pothole State Park north to the Jermyn border.\n<\/p>\n

If every proposal moves forward, the borough will have 30 data centers and a power plant in that stretch, placing the facilities near parks, homes and schools.<\/p>\n

Marzolino, who is the president of Kriger Construction, currently proposes to build data centers above Business Route 6 in Dickson City<\/a>. He previously sought to build data centers in Blakely<\/a> near Business Route 6 and Terrace Drive. He also sold 186 acres along Eynon Jermyn Road for the Project Gravity<\/a> data center campus, which plans to build seven data centers.
\n\"AA vehicle travels on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald near Staback Park Friday, March 209, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)\n<\/p>\n

A new power plant<\/p>\n

The zoning application does not indicate how much electricity the power plant would generate, only describing it as \u201cconsisting of four 66,000-square-foot turbine pads with appropriate entrance and access roads.\u201d The power plant would be up to 55 feet tall.\n<\/p>\n

The 17-acre site falls into Archbald\u2019s general industrial, or I-2, zoning district, which classifies electric power generating plants as conditional uses. The borough gave the same designation to data centers, which means the application will follow the same process as recent data center proposals. Representatives for the power plant will have to attend a public hearing to describe their project and how it will abide by the conditions the borough established for power plants. Borough council members, affected residents and their attorneys will have the chance to cross-examine the power plant\u2019s witnesses, and residents will have the opportunity to testify for or against the project.<\/p>\n

After testimony, council will vote to approve or deny the power plant.<\/p>\n

The application does not explicitly describe what type of power plant it will be, but an on-site gas pad shown in the site plan indicates it will be a natural gas power plant. Although the site plan was not submitted to Archbald until March 12, it\u2019s dated April 10, 2025.<\/p>\n

Upon zoning approval, the power plant would submit a land development plan showing site work to remove the auto salvage\/junkyard\/retail parts sales from Highway Auto, including detailed site plans, according to the application.<\/p>\n

Marzolino and his attorney, Mike Mey, applied for the power plant under the newly registered Essential Energy LLC. Mey, who is listed as the organizer of Essential Energy LLC, registered the limited liability company with the Pennsylvania Department of State on March 12 using his Mey & Sulla law firm\u2019s address at 1144 E. Drinker St., Dunmore, according to a certificate of organization obtained by The Times-Tribune. Mey also represented Marzolino\u2019s data center proposals in Blakely and Dickson City.<\/p>\n

The application lists the property owner as PDC Realty LLC, 805 Enterprise St., Dickson City,. The Department of State\u2019s business registry describes Marzolino as the governor of PDC Realty, with a principal address at 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, which is the business address of Kriger Construction Inc. and its affiliated NEPA Concrete & Asphalt plant.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

PDC Realty acquired the Highway Auto Parts auto salvage yard for $1,575,000, totaling about 83.5 acres across 17 parcels, according to a property transaction recorded Aug. 8.\n<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach Marzolino and Mey were unsuccessful Friday.\n<\/p>\n

Data center background<\/p>\n

Over the past year, Marzolino has been involved with at least four data center projects.\n<\/p>\n

In August, he told The Times-Tribune his interest in data centers stemmed from a Bitcoin mining hobby, and that he had spent the past three years researching the industry. As of August, Marzolino reported having about 20 people in-house working on finding land, developing, planning and engineering data centers.\n<\/p>\n

His earliest data center venture\u2019s roots date back nearly three years when he purchased just over 186 acres along Eynon Jermyn Road from Louis and Dominick DeNaples\u2019 Dunmore-based D&L Realty Company for $825,000, according to a property transaction recorded May 15, 2023. The following year on Oct. 15, 2024, he signed a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement on behalf of Five Up Realty LLC\u00a0 with Western Hospitality Partners \u2014 Jermyn LLC for what would become Project Gravity, which was recorded with the county Oct. 21, 2024. The memorandum predates Archbald\u2019s earliest data center proposal in January 2025 for the Wildcat Ridge Data Center Campus.\n<\/p>\n

Plans for Project Gravity became official April 2 when the developer submitted a sketch plan to the borough to build seven two-story data centers, each with a 138,000-square-foot footprint. The project includes purchasing the Valley View Estates mobile home park, displacing<\/a> the park\u2019s roughly three dozen residents.<\/p>\n

Marzolino\u2019s firm then sold the Project Gravity land to Archbald 25 Developer, formerly Western Hospitality Partners \u2014 Jermyn, for $12,025,000, according to a property transaction recorded Oct. 9. Archbald 25 Developer also paid Louis and Dominick DeNaples $10 million for the rights to the \u201ccoal and or coalbed methane\u201d beneath Project Gravity, according to a deed recorded Dec. 12.\n<\/p>\n

A week after Archbald received the Project Gravity sketch plan, in a zoning application dated April 10, Marzolino applied for the Archbald Data & Energy Center LLC at the site of the Highway Auto junkyard. The initial proposal sought three two-story data centers, each with a 150,000-square-foot footprint, but those plans were later consolidated into a single 619,925-square-foot data center known as Project Boson. The new plans, which The Times-Tribune obtained via a Right to Know Law request, are dated Aug. 18.\n<\/p>\n

Mey approached Blakely\u2019s planning commission Aug. 4 looking to rezone land below Business Route 6 and off Terrace Drive from a low-density residential district to allow for the construction of up to four two-story data centers, each with a roughly 150,000-square-foot footprint. Marzolino was co-developing that project with Alpesh \u201cAl\u201d Patel, most known for his Dunmore-based Al\u2019s Quick Stop convenience stores, with both men owning portions of the roughly 200 acres where they proposed to build the data centers.\n<\/p>\n

The project received significant pushback during an Aug. 13 public information session in Blakely. Marzolino and Patel withdrew<\/a> their zoning application Sept. 12, just days before a scheduled public hearing on their proposal.\n<\/p>\n

Finally, operating as Dickson City Development LLC, 99 Power Blvd., Archbald, another firm linked to Marzolino submitted plans in November to build data centers in Dickson City above Business Route 6. Mey and attorney Raymond Rinaldi then presented two proposals for data centers on behalf of Dickson City Development during a Jan. 21 public hearing in Dickson City. The attorneys argued that Dickson City already permitted data centers in its highway commercial zoning districts because of language allowing \u201cdata processing and record storage,\u201d which they contended allows them to develop three data centers above the site of a proposed Wawa on the mountain above Cold Spring Road. Alternatively, the developer also submitted a zoning ordinance to the borough requesting a 403-acre data center overlay district that would have permitted a data center campus around Bell Mountain.\n<\/p>\n

Dickson City officials disagreed with that characterization and adopted zoning standards that would prevent those developments, but Mey filed a land use appeal March 13 on behalf of Dickson City Development asking the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas to annul Dickson City\u2019s zoning ordinance and remand it back to the borough, calling it exclusionary. The appeal notes multiple other ongoing zoning appeals against the borough.\n<\/p>\n

Early opposition<\/p>\n

Jeff Smith is no stranger to battling power plants.\n<\/p>\n

The Jessup resident was a founding member of Citizens for a Healthy Jessup when residents organized in early 2016 in opposition of the Lackawanna Energy Center natural gas-fired power plant. He remains the group\u2019s president. He is also the chairman of the Sierra Club\u2019s Pennsylvania chapter.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first glance, I thought this sketch plan was an April Fool\u2019s joke,\u201d Smith said Friday after reviewing the plans. \u201cThe extremely sad part of this is that this threat is real. The placement of a power generation plant so close to our parks and our schools is going to be so harmful for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t enough information in the power plant\u2019s application for a reasonable person to make a determination, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcept the location is way too close to parks and schools,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of unforeseeable impacts that are going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referencing the large numbers of diesel generators proposed at data center campuses to provide backup power, Smith said the cumulative effects of potentially thousands of diesel generators \u2014 which require routine testing \u2014 plus the newly proposed power plant\u2019s currently unknown power generation, \u201cIs not an outcome any community can or should accept.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Archbald citizens are putting up an incredible battle,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThis community has stepped up in a way that is really remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hopes borough residents found some comfort looking at organizations like Citizens for a Healthy Jessup and Friends of Lackawanna, which formed in 2014 to oppose the Keystone Sanitary Landfill and its expansion.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity scrutiny and accountability is the most important thing,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is literally the sunshine that goes into the dark corners \u2014 it is transparency at its best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newly appointed Archbald Borough Council President Louis Rapoch, who began his first term on council in January, said council had not yet had the opportunity to review the application with the borough\u2019s zoning officer. But, they\u2019re not happy, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want it there, like we don\u2019t want the data centers there,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are speculators that are coming in here, hoping that we\u2019ll just lay down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rapoch said he has already watched more houses going up for sale near proposed data centers in the Highlands housing development on Eynon Jermyn Road, and he fears large amounts of deforestation will lead to flooding, especially in neighboring Jermyn, which is downhill of Archbald. He also noted the potential noise impacts from a power plant near Staback Park, which he said is Archbald\u2019s most popular park.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people have suffered too much,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople have suffered way too much from the coal barons, and we\u2019re not going to allow this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial view of the Highlands housing developement on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald Friday, March 20, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

He wants to \u201cfight as many conditional uses as we can that are legal\u201d and noted that himself and fellow council members Joseph Altier III and Tom Aniska joined council this year after the borough had already adopted standards for data centers \u2014 standards that faced opposition from residents<\/a> who wanted even more safeguards while allowing data centers in fewer locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe three of us, we came into this, and it\u2019s a nightmare,\u201d Rapoch said. \u201cIt just seems like it\u2019s tacking on more and more and more, and we\u2019re fighting as much as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madonna Munley, 68, is a fifth generation Archbald resident who has become a fixture at council meetings, work sessions and public hearings. With two great-nephews, seven generations of her family have lived in Archbald.<\/p>\n

After learning of the proposed power plant Friday, Munley said she could cry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m stunned,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was possible to be surprised anymore because I\u2019ve been working and involved with this since last spring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MadonnaMadonna Munley of Archbald shares her concerns about potential low-frequency sounds emitted from data centers while testifying during a zoning hearing at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Archbald, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025. (FRANK WILKES LESNEFSKY \/ STAFF PHOTO)<\/p>\n

With the potential for 30 data centers and a power plant confined to one area, Munley worried about the children, especially those living in nearby housing developments, who could end up living near them, playing near them at Staback Park and going to school near them at Valley View.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are never getting away from these,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s scary, and I can\u2019t even imagine that anybody is going to want to live in this town.\u201d<\/p>\n

The money promised by data centers isn\u2019t worth it, Munley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might as well be Monopoly money for all I care,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any amount of money is worth someone\u2019s health or changing the character of this town to make it unrecognizable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having attended numerous borough meetings over the past year, Munley believes the power plant will be a tipping point to drive more attendance to meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot tolerate this, and I think a lot more people are going to come out,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope they do, because we need (developers) to know that we are a united front.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A local data center developer wants to build a power plant on Eynon Jermyn Road in Archbald less…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144266,"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":["post-144265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-data-centers","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144265","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=144265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}