Following land sale valuing site at $45.6m
A golf course in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, is set to become a data center.
As reported by Local21News, the Dauphin County General Authority (DCGA) owned golf course was sold for $45.6 million to Harrisburg I, LLC, which intends to use the site for a data center project.
Harrisburg I is a purchasing entity under the Texas realtor Provident Realty. According to the county, the proposal was one of six data center projects submitted to develop the 250-acre site.
“Over the past year, we received multiple unsolicited offers to develop data centers on this property,” said Board chairperson Barbara Zemlock. “Issuing an RFP gave us the chance to fully evaluate the land’s market value. Harrisburg I, LLC’s proposal is approximately 10 times higher than the recorded value of the land.”
The Dauphin County General Authority approved the sale, noting that it would bring benefits to the local community and school district through tax revenue.
The golf course is located in Swatara Township and Steelton, with the sale enabling the authority to pay off $13 million in debt associated with the property, after it has consistently operated at a loss. The DCGA has said that there are still conditions to be met before a transaction is finalized, including infrastructure approvals.
Board member Eric Epstein said of the sale: "There are variables associated with this process. They need to get water. They’re going to need to get power. They need to get a highway occupancy permit, navigate land use. What occurs first is due diligence to see if the land is suitable."
If met, the golf course sale will be concluded and operations will cease at the end of 2027, reports WGAL.
Earlier this month, Londonderry Township in Dauphin County was weighing up a data center zoning ordinance change that would “remove provisions related to traditional neighborhood developments and provide regulations for data centers and their accessory uses as part of an overlay district.”
Dauphin County is located west of Philadelphia and east of Pittsburgh, with Harrisburg being the major settlement in the county. Alerify operates a Harrisburg data center.
Most of Pennsylvania's data centers are located in either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Operators in the state include Iron Mountain, EdgeConneX, Ark, DataBank, Equinix, and 365 Data Centers, among others.
Founded in 1991, Provident Realty Advisors is a real estate investment and development platform. Its Provident Data Centers division offers data center development services, including securing locations, feasibility studies, power procurement, regulatory compliance, and infrastructure design.
The developer also announced plans to build a data center on a 200-acre site in northwest Indiana in May last year. The plan was rejected. Provident then pitched a seven-building campus in Burns Harbor, Indiana, in August. The company has partnered with PowerHouse for two data center developments in Texas.
On its website, Provident lists six projects in Texas: Grand Prairie, Fort Worth, Irving, Plano, Dallas, and Austin. It also lists three ‘legacy’ projects in Dallas and Richardson, as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico. A map suggests a total of 6GW worth of projects across six states.
Source: DCD
