November 6, 2024
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Buffalo Business First — a member of the American City Business Journal’s chain of weekly business publications reaching readers nationwide — profiled “the next steps on a $1.5 billion plan to construct a massive data center campus in the City of Niagara Falls.”
As Buffalo Business First reported, Niagara Falls Redevelopment “recently submitted a Planned Unit Development application to the city, seeking zoning changes that would allow the project to move forward.
“The developer, which owns more than 140 acres in downtown Niagara Falls, plans to construct nine buildings – totaling 1.2 million square feet – over five phases on 53 acres of undeveloped or underdeveloped land between Falls Street and Rainbow Boulevard,” the publication reported.
The complex would use 140 megawatts of electricity, providing computing power for AI companies and other tech projects. As has been previously reported, the sales tax revenue alone from “The Data Center at Niagara Digital Campus” will generate more than $3-5 million annually to The City of Niagara Falls, before increases in property taxes, new jobs and other economic development benefits.
During construction, it is estimated that the development will create 5,600 high-paying jobs. In addition, according to the Business Journal, “once complete, the Niagara Digital Campus would create an estimated 550 permanent jobs.”
In the article, NFR attorney John Horn of Harter Secrest & Emery LLP in Buffalo, noted that Niagara Falls is the perfect site for a project like this thanks to its climate and its proximity to ample electricity. “The goal is to integrate the campus into the fabric of downtown,” he said.
According to the article:
“This is truly an urban proposition,” he said. “What we are proposing is to build this data center near the people of Niagara Falls, near the businesses of Niagara Falls, in a way that is conducive to economic development not just today but for years to come.”
Dennis Elsenbeck, Head of Energy and Sustainability for Phillips Lytle LLP and a consultant on the Niagara Digital Campus project, told that Buffalo Business First that “Western New York needs sizable private investment to become a tech hub as envisioned by public officials.”
“It allows us to actually kickstart the whole tech corridor conversation, given that the capacity exists in Niagara Falls,” he said in an interview. “We talk about smart growth. This is smart growth.”
The full article can be found here: https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/news/2024/11/05/niagara-falls-campus-data-center-eminent-domain.html
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