Community members will have the opportunity to weigh in on the idea of data centers becoming a permitted use in Stowe Township when the township Board of Commissioners meets at 6 p.m. Monday.
The board will consider amending the township’s zoning ordinance to add the term “data center” and thereby permit the use of data centers in Stowe’s general industrial district.
The meeting will take place at the township Municipal Building, 555 Broadway Ave.
The township was required to advertise the public hearing twice prior to Monday’s board meeting, and council member Cheryl McDermott said there’s a possibility the hearing will be postponed until the council’s December meeting. However, the item appears on the meeting agenda for Monday, Nov. 10.
In addition to allowing data centers to be built in the general industrial district, the proposed zoning ordinance change also would modify the maximum building height in the district. The current maximum height allowed in that district is 50 feet, although that doesn’t apply to light standards, cranes and other similar accessory structures associated with an intermodal rail facility.
The topic of data centers surfaced prior to last month’s commissioners meeting when it was learned that an affiliate of SunCap Property Group, which owns the former Pressed Steel Car Co. McKees Rocks Work Plant, might want to explore them as a potential use for the 72-acre site.
SunCap Property Group closed on the property in May 2023 and has been attempting to attract a tenant for the site, Matt Virgin, chief business officer at SunCap Property Group, said last month.
Virgin wouldn’t say if SunCap plans to pursue a data center for that property, which SunCap has named RockPoint Industrial.
“Stowe is considering adding data centers to those permitted (industrial) uses,” Virgin said. “That’s all I can say.”
Virgin said SunCap has made a major investment in that former rail car plant site, tearing down more than 70 structures to prepare it for development.
“We took it from the condition it was in – a lot of very old manufacturing buildings – to what it is today, a close to pad-ready site,” he said.
Nichol Avenue McKees Rocks LLC, an entity affiliated with SunCap, recently was awarded $6 million by the state to put toward the brownfield site. Virgin said the funding would be used to complete some additional demolition, utility and remediation work to get the site closer to pad-ready than it is today.
A press release from the state indicated the funding would be used for the acquisition of land along the rail spur, soil screening and disposal, rail spur reconstruction, stormwater controls, utility relocation, sewer line replacement and remediation.
Virgin said he didn’t know if a data center would be a viable project for the former Pressed Steel Car Co. plant site.
“But if (the township does) decide to include data centers as a permitted use, it would give us an opportunity to reach a broader market than what we have been able to reach thus far,” Virgin said.
Virgin said his group appreciates the state’s decision to award Nichol Avenue McKees Rocks LLC $6 million in funding from the PA SITES (Pennsylvania Strategic Investments to Enhance Sites) program. The next step, he said, would be to find out more about when the money will be made available and decide which tasks will make the most sense to tackle first.
According to SunCap Properties’ website, RockPoint Industrial is described as a fully entitled 1.2 million-square-foot industrial development site offering flexible site configurations, direct rail service and prime highway access.
“The preliminary site plan can be modified for multiple site configurations, including one large building or multiple buildings or build-to-suit projects,” the website states. “In the first phase of development, SunCap plans to build a 283,815 SF Class A Distribution building.”
Virgin confirmed that SunCap would like to build a building there. But up to this point, Virgin said, “The market has not dictated we should go forward.”
McDermott said after last month’s council meeting that the proposed zoning ordinance amendment is just a case of the township – and SunCap — wanting to be ready for the future.
The West Hills region already is home to at least one data center, Ardent Data Center in Robinson Township.
McDermott said there is no guarantee that a data center would be part of any project at RockPoint, but she understands why SunCap would want the option to go that route.
“They have millions tied up in the cleanup of that site,” McDermott said. “On a business level, I’d want to do the same thing. They want to be ready for the future.”
McDermott acknowledged that some people have reservations about the idea of a data center locating in Stowe. She said she needs to do more research on the idea herself, but her first attempt in that area didn’t raise any red flags.
McDermott said she spoke with a Robinson Township official, who said the township hasn’t experienced any issues with water or electricity related to Arden Data Center’s operation on McMichael Road.
“I told him to give me the pros and cons,” McDermott said. “He said, ‘There’s not a con,’ and that you wouldn’t even know it was there.”
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