The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. sold its data center and office building in South Buffalo for $5.5 million to a subsidiary of an Irish firm.

Commonly known as BNY, the company’s departure from RIDC Armstrong Innovation Park represents a “strategic consolidation,” spokesperson Ryan Wells said.

He did not offer any additional details and declined to comment on how many employees were impacted.

The sale to Chirisa Technology Parks adds to the data center developer’s far-flung U.S. portfolio.

Chirisa did not immediately return a request for comment.

South Buffalo stakeholders hailed the deal as a win for the 925-acre park formerly known as Northpointe Business Park, including the Regional Industrial Development Corp., which helps develop and manage this site and several others in Western Pennsylvania.

“This deal is an illustration of the interest in RIDC Armstrong Innovation Park that we continue to see from companies seeking a great location with high-quality infrastructure within commuting distance to major regional population centers,” RIDC Senior Vice President Timothy White said.

The park, just off Route 28 and about a 40-minute drive from Downtown Pittsburgh, appears to be on a growth trajectory.

South Buffalo moved its municipal center there in 2022 after buying a property for $400,000 from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, which still leases space in the building.

The township recently built a playground, and a 90-home development is slated to break ground next year.

That would add a mixed-use element to a park otherwise filled with manufacturing and research facilities.

At first, supervisors feared BNY’s departure marked a reversal of momentum.

“When we did hear that (BNY) was leaving, it was a great blow, we felt, to the township to lose such a huge tenant and large employer in the industrial park,” township Supervisor Paul Bergad said. “As supervisors, we were absolutely thrilled that a new tenant was going in — not only one that was going to fill the building, but one that was going to be a large employer in the township.”

The data facility opened in 2006 as a backup to then-Mellon Financial Corp.’s Downtown Pittsburgh data processing center to meet post-9/11 requirements for financial institutions with federal contracts. The changes were meant to create redundancies in case of attack.

In 2007, the firm announced, and later scrapped, plans to make a $70 million investment in the data center and double the number of employees from 200 to 400.

Data centers are often vast repositories of personal information, financial information and intellectual property. They may also support crucial industries like health care, transportation or, in the case of BNY, banking, subjecting them to strict security requirements.

BNY has been shrinking its Pittsburgh workforce in recent years. With the bank’s lease ending in 2028 at its Downtown BNY Mellon Center, remaining employees will move to a secondary location on Ross Street.

The company nonetheless remains one of the world’s largest banks with $50 trillion in assets on behalf of clients in more than 100 markets.