Allenwood Union County’s Great Stream Commons business park data center plans have been shelved.
County officials have been informed by Data Centric that it will not be buying 37 acres in Great Stream Commons, which is located along Route 15 north of Allenwood.
In May, the company signed a purchase agreement that gave it 180 days to either finish the purchase, for which it paid a $100,000 deposit, or walk away.
Shawn McLaughlin, the county’s director of planning and economic development, informed the county commissioners that the project was canceled and that the $100,000 that had been placed in escrow would be reimbursed.
The county had been working with KSR Capital, an investment and real estate company based in New York City. In May, PennLive made an unsuccessful attempt to get information on the proposed project from KSR.
According to a county official, the developer would have been liable for the price of any necessary electrical system changes to make room for a data center.
As McLaughlin has previously noted, all of the parcels in the business park would have been sold or committed with the sale of the 37 acres.
Because the location is rail-served, Commissioner Stacy Richards said she expects interest.
On the location where a Union Pacific Corp. affiliate revealed plans to construct a hazardous waste incinerator in 1990, the county constructed Great Stream.
Due to substantial community resistance, U.S. Pollution Control Inc. (USPCI) canceled the project four years after spending $17.5 million. The reasons were attributed to industry uncertainties and the national regulatory environment.
A long-term agreement to inhabit a 252,282 square foot building in Great Stream owned by PNK Group was announced two weeks ago by ModCorr, a Galveston, Texas-based modular jail maker.
In 2022, the commercial and industrial development company purchased about 200 acres with the intention of erecting five structures. Two of them are finished, including the one ModCorr is renting.
The 677 acres were purchased by the Union County Industrial Development Corp. (UDIC) in 1995 for $4.5 million, and utilities and roadways were installed.
Except for the sale of a tiny piece to an eye doctor’s office and fifty acres just north of Allenwood to the Union County Housing Authority, there was no activity there.
Because the land was not selling, the county had to float a $13 million bond issue and impose a tax to meet debt service in 1998 after the UDIC fell out of business.
The county was able to remove that tax because to the proceeds from the sale of plots.
