After a yearslong saga that resulted in the implosion of two towering smokestacks and the two-part demolition of a massive boiler house at the former Cheswick Generating Station, the property owner says the site will likely become a data center.
Scott Reschly, president of Charah Environmental Redevelopment Group, the Louisville-based firm that bought the site in 2022, said he is under contract with a “large multi-national experienced” data center developer pending a due diligence period.
Reschly said he could not disclose the name of the company yet, but the company is working with consultants in Pennsylvania and out of state.
The sale of the site, he said, will be complete by the end of the year.
Data centers house computing equipment like servers and storage devices that hold internet data like text messages, internet services and bank transactions for companies or organizations.
The Springdale site is the latest in a series of centers announced throughout the region.
A data center is planned for Alcoa Research Center in Upper Burrell, and another is set to occupy the site of the former Homer City power station in Indiana County. Both of those will be natural gas powered.
State Rep. Mandy Steele, (D-33rd District), said riverfront property is the core of economic growth in the Allegheny Valley. Springdale is in her district.
After conversations with the buyer, who Steele did not disclose, she is hopeful some sort of riverfront recreation opportunities and green space will be incorporated into the site.
“They have been very community minded; they want to see the community thrive,” Steele said.
She said the idled boiler house and smokestacks served as a “cork” in economic development along the river, but a data center would bring good-paying jobs to the region.
Brad Yaksich, council president in bordering Cheswick, is glad something will occupy the site and it won’t be left as a brownfield. He said he hopes the developers will be “good neighbors.”
“We’re happy that the property is going to have some life,” Yaksich said.
Remediation efforts have been ongoing at the Springdale site since crews pulled down the remnants of its boiler house in early March. But Reschly said they should be finished within the next three weeks, leaving the site vacant.
“It feels good,” Reschly said. “It feels like we came in and executed what we wanted to execute and found a really good buyer who is going to be able to put the land to use.”