ALABAMA — A chorus of opposition from around Western New York greeted a proposed $1.4 billion in tax breaks for a data center in Genesee County at a public hearing on April 16.
While there was support from trade union reps, the overwhelming majority expressed skepticism about the worth of the financial impacts and the environmental costs.
“I don’t see how any PILOT payment, any job creation, any gifts that are given to the school districts and communities can possibly measure up to that incentive,” said Terry Abrams, a member of the Bear Clan of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation. “… I know that this is all you really care about, is the dollars and cents. But the true costs are the social costs, the environmental costs, the spiritual costs.”
The proposed $19.4 billion data center campus from Stream Data Centers would include a trio of two-story, 366,500-square-foot buildings at the Western New York Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park in the town of Alabama. The proposed incentives would include a $1.4 billion sales tax abatement and $31 million mortgage tax abatement. A payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the town, Genesee County and the Oakfield-Alabama Central School District would pay $285 million over 30 years.
The project is expected to create 125 jobs, with the buildings split between a north and south campus located on 90 acres across the road from the new Edwards Vacuum facility. Stream has said it has Fortune 50 tenants for the data center but Genesee County Economic Development Center said the identity of the tenant or tenants are covered by a non-disclosure agreement.
The greenfield development park is situated adjacent to the Tonawanda Indian Reservation and Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge, along with other protected wildlife management areas. It’s also near a bottleneck of the Western New York Wildway, a connected landscape that promotes wildlife movement and biodiversity.
“This area is one of the last remaining safe passages linking the Southern Tier forests to the shores of Lake Ontario,” said Marisa Riggle, executive director of the Western New York Land Conservancy. “… The damage from this project would be profound and irreversible. It must not proceed.”
A public hearing on the data center site plan by the town’s planning board on April 20 will be rescheduled to give the town’s independent sound consultants time to complete a peer review of the applicant’s sound study. A complete recording of the public hearing is available on the GCEDC website.
— Steve Howe reports on suburban growth, development and environment for the Democrat and Chronicle. An RIT graduate, he has covered myriad topics over the years, including public safety, local government, national politics and economic development in New York and Utah.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Opposition mounts to $1.4B tax breaks for Genesee County data center
Reporting by Steve Howe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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