SALEM TOWNSHIP, PA. — The Salem Township Board of Supervisors has approved a 4,466-acre data center overlay district in northeastern Pennsylvania. The vote represents another cleared hurdle to bringing an energy and digital infrastructure campus with a total power capacity of 4 gigawatts to Luzerne County.
The approval follows the Salem Township Planning Commission’s unanimous recommendation that 194 local families continue to pursue a potential $1.4 billion land sale involving nearly 4,500 acres of working and retired farms, family homesteads and other properties.
That acreage would become the future home of the data center campus known as Salem 3. Under the currently proposed terms, the campus would also feature other uses, including a $12 million micro hospital and a community park, in addition to other natural green spaces that would be preserved. Construction could support as many as 2,000 new jobs.
According to 4-3 Glennbrook Group, a landowner advocacy group that is representing the 194 families, the plan for Salem 3 builds on the township’s longstanding role as an energy-producing community, pairing existing energy infrastructure with a new generation of data center and digital infrastructure investment. The 4-3 Glennbrook Group team also handled the land assemblage for the existing Salem 2 campus, which previously sold to Blackstone-backed QTS Data Centers for $586 million.
Salem Township sits within the PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest wholesale electricity market, and is home to both the Susquehanna nuclear power plant and an existing combined-cycle natural gas and steam generation facility. The surrounding area features multiple industrial-scale switchyards and substations, “major” transmission infrastructure and a pipeline right-of-way system with access to a “significant” natural gas supply.
“Data centers are not a yes or no question; it’s about where and how,” says Jack Sordoni, co-founder of 4-3 Glennbrook Group. “In this case, ‘where’ happens to be between two nuclear towers, a massive gas plant, major electrical infrastructure and virtually unlimited fuel sources. The ‘how’ comes from embracing the landowners, their value and their dignity, and coming together as a community to recognize the opportunity a project like this promises.”
“We’re grateful to the Board of Supervisors for the time and care they put into this decision and to everyone who came out and spoke, whether they were for it or had questions,” adds Dave Scoblick, co-founder and principal at 4-3 Glennbrook Group. “Tonight’s vote is a big step for 194 Salem Township families, but we’re still not at the finish line. We have a lot of work ahead, and we’re going to keep doing it transparently alongside the township and our neighbors.”