Genesee County Economic Development Corp. (GCEDC) board has given the green light for a data center campus at the Science, Technology, and Advanced Manufacturing Park (STAMP) site in Alabama, New York.
Dubbed "Project Hydroscale," the data center complex was voted unanimously by the board to move ahead with the environmental review process, reports Buffalo Business First.
The decision to move ahead with the data center development proposed by real estate firm JLL on behalf of an unnamed developer is not without its critics, however, notably a rival project.
PRP Real Estate Investment of Washington DC is also looking to build a data center at the STAMP site under "Project Rampart," and argues that the JLL development is being unfairly favored.
JLL's Project Hydroscale will see the development of a 45-acre campus with two 450,000 sq ft (41,806 sqm) two-story data centers. It is expected to create around 60 full-time jobs upon completion, and the data centers would be leased to clients for a 20-year term and likely used for artificial intelligence workloads.
An estimated total cost for Project Hydroscale is $3.8 billion.
Project Rampart, however, according to Tom Wasko, director of acquisitions for PRP, seeks to buy 100 acres and will create around 100 jobs.
PRP plans to build three 250,000 sq ft (25,548 sqm) single-story data centers on the site. The total cost is expected to be $3.33 billion. "You're leaving money on the table if you don't have this be bid on competitively," he said.
According to an earlier report from Buffalo Business First, PRP had previously had a meeting that was scheduled for October 2 with the GCEDC canceled.
A letter sent to the GCEDC from law firm Hodgson Russ said: "Typically we would expect GCEDC to engage in a competitive process. Rationale as to why Project Ramparts proposal would be ignored ranged from 'you came in after' to 'we gave them our word.' "
A response from law firm Phillips Lytle argued that the Project Rampart application was incomplete, and added that the LLC associated was not yet authorized to do business in New York.
Wasko raised similar arguments about the "double standard" of approving Project Hydroscale during the October 3 public meeting, to which GCEDC president and CEO Mark Masse said: "We have a completed application from Hydroscale; we have an incomplete application from Rampart. There's a lot of work left to be done."
The STAMP site currently has two major private projects under development. Designed to support large-scale high-tech industries, Plug Power is developing a hydrogen production facility at the site; while Edwards Vacuum, which makes vacuum equipment for the semiconductor industry, is working on a $319 million plant.
In total, STAMP is a 1,250-acre shovel-ready site and has been in planning since 2004.