Proposed Industrial Projects in New Castle County Signal Potential Data Center Development
December 16, 2025
The explosive growth of artificial intelligence has triggered a massive surge in demand for data centers, the critical infrastructure housing the servers that power the digital economy. This boom, however, has ignited widespread debate in communities like New Castle County, Delaware, where concerns over substantial electricity and water consumption by these facilities clash with the promise of economic investment.
Recent filings indicate that two major industrial developments proposed in the county may be intended for data center use, a prospect that could intensify local regulatory battles. While not explicitly confirmed, the engineering firm Verdantas, representing both projects, asserted in letters to county planners that data centers require significantly fewer parking spaces than other industrial developments—a detail often indicative of such facilities. The projects are planned for sites off Route 273 near Newark and on land near the St. Georges Bridge approach off U.S. Route 13, the latter being the current location of the seasonal attraction Frightland.
The first project, proposed on behalf of Parkway Gravel Inc., was initially submitted last year as a plan for three distribution centers totaling 2.5 million square feet. Revised documents filed in November, however, removed the term "logistics center" and increased the total proposed size to 3.2 million square feet. The second, submitted earlier this month for a site east of Newark at White Clay Center Drive, involves a 676,000-square-foot industrial park that would replace existing, partially vacant office and industrial buildings.
The ambiguity surrounding the projects' final use comes amid a heated political debate over data center regulation. County Council member Dave Carter has been pushing for a comprehensive set of rules, first proposed four months ago following public backlash against a separate, power-intensive data center plan on 580 acres near the Delaware City Refinery. His proposal includes requirements for buffer zones near residential areas and energy-efficient backup generators. “We’re losing ground, but it could get a whole lot worse if we don’t get some reasonable controls in place,” Carter told Spotlight Delaware, expressing urgency to apply regulations to these new proposals.
In contrast, Council member Janet Kilpatrick, a critic of Carter's regulatory push, welcomed the potential for new data center investment. “We need to get our tax base up, and we need to get people jobs,” she said, noting the county's loss of industrial operations in recent decades. Carter's proposal was recently delayed due to lack of council support, partly influenced by building trade unions publicly opposing the regulations and supporting the earlier Starwood Digital Ventures data center plan.
Currently, New Castle County's zoning code permits both data centers and warehouses by right in light industrial districts, presenting few barriers for developers to pivot between uses. This flexibility is increasingly relevant as warehouse demand slows while investor enthusiasm for AI-driven data center growth accelerates. County planning officials stated they have not received definitive clarification on the proposed uses for the two Verdantas projects, and neither the firm nor the developers responded to requests for comment.
Source: spotlightdelaware
