A South End land owner has released a report on the proposed data center development project that shows if completed, it would result in “more than $414 million in additional tax revenues” for the city, county, state and local school district, over a 20-year period.
An economic impact study, prepared for Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) by a Saratoga Springs consultant, MRB Group, also claims that the data center project would create “almost 1,000 jobs per year on average” with estimated earnings of “$1.66 billion over 20 years.”
The proposed project, dubbed Niagara Digital campus, calls for a “1.2 million square foot, 140 megawatt, high-capacity data center, comprised of nine buildings equipped with state-of-the-art server halls, network infrastructure, office space, and mechanical/electrical support areas.
MRB Group is described as “a leading engineering, architecture, and municipal planning company.” The group’s 24-page study suggests that the proposed data center project would provide substantial property and sales tax revenues to the city, the Niagara Falls City School District, Niagara County and the State of New York.
Over a 20-year period, the MRB study says the Falls and its school district would receive “approximately $298 million in new property, sales and gross tax receipts.” It estimates Niagara County would receive “$54 million in new property and sales tax revenue” and New York State would collect “approximately $63 million in sales tax revenues from the project’s energy usage.”
The MRB study calculates what it calls a “property tax savings to a ‘typical’ owner of an average-priced single-family home,” concluding that the homeowner would “save approximately $14,603 over 20 years” or “an average of approximately $730 per year.” The consultant defines the “savings” as “revenues that the city and school district otherwise would have to collect via their respective tax levies.”
Niagara Falls Mayor Robert Restaino described the study conclusions as, “a pretty enthusiastic, but I think, unsubstantiated set of alleged facts.”
The MBR study says that “over the course of 20 years, the data center at Niagara Digital Campus will support 19,238 job-years (which is inclusive of construction jobs, permanent jobs, and indirect jobs).” It concludes those jobs will lead to $1.66 billion in earnings, which “equates to an average of 962 jobs with $83 million in earnings each year.”
Neither NFR nor its partner in the proposed project, Toronto-based construction company Urbacon, have confirmed the potential tenants of the data center.
“This report confirms everything that we have said since the beginning, the Data Center at Niagara Digital Campus is the best investment the city can make, one that will create technology jobs, tax revenues and prosperity for generations to come,” said Roger Trevino, executive vice president of Niagara Falls Redevelopment. “With our partners at Urbacon, we are ready to begin today and look forward to working with the city to make this project a reality.
The Falls Planning Board has scheduled a public hearing for April 16 on another proposed data center project. Highland Avenue NY 3801 is proposing the development of an AI center in the North End. Restaino said city officials have met with the developer and received more information than they have from NFR.
“We know who they’re building for,” the mayor said. “Who are NFR’s end users?”
NFR is proposing to build the campus on the same tracts of South End land currently awarded to the city by court order under an eminent domain proceeding.
Additionally, the Falls has also recently claimed that it still owns 10 acres of the proposed data center site, because NFR never properly completed the purchase of the land. Both the land ownership claim and the eminent domain decision are being contested in court.