Ok residents, the weekend surprise is essentially the data center developer building in East Whiteland wants to make it BIGGER.
We have a proverbial foot in the door scenario, and IMHO East Whiteland never should have allowed the foot to get there in the first place and I am allowed to have this opinion under the First Amendment.
To QUOTE the township:
đź“ŚThe Applicant for the proposed Data Center on Swedesford Road will attend the upcoming Planning Commission meeting on Wednesday, January 28, 2026 to present an Amended Plan for the project. The Amended Plan differs from the Previously Approved Plan as follows:
total building square footage has increased from 1,026,800 s.f. to 1,656,630 s.f. (along with related increases in building coverage and impervious coverage)
cooling equipment has been redesigned and relocated from the ground immediately adjacent to the buildings (water-consuming cooling towers) to the rooftop (waterless rooftop chillers) along with corresponding sound mitigation barriers
emergency back-up generators have been relocated from the basement of the buildings to the ground immediately adjacent to the buildings along with corresponding sound mitigation barriers
office uses and loading facilities have been relocated from the southern side of the buildings to the northern side of the buildings facing Swedesford Road
additional trees and landscaping have been proposed on the former sewer lagoons located between the development site and Swedesford Road
design and location of stormwater management facilities, parking lots, and internal circulation areas have been modified
previously proposed microwave towers, antenna yards, and ground-mounted cooling towers have been removed
East Whiteland Township needs to say NO and they need to enable Zoom capability for ALL meetings where this is concerned given the weather and number of residents and neighbors who will be interested.
Again… the weekend surprise is essentially the data center developer for the East Whiteland Data Center on Swedesford next to West Whiteland park land, wants to make it BIGGER.
East Whiteland Township needs to say NO and they need to enable Zoom capability for ALL meetings where this is concerned given the weather and number of residents and neighbors who will be interested.
When we (myself and others) posted about this data center first happening a few years ago, very few people were interested. It was the chorus of crickets.
Recently, some people seemed like they were interested in this again and people wondered where they were a couple of years ago. This is the same developer that West Whiteland turned down for the hydrogen plant.
Once upon a time, I think this developer was like a stock broker or a money manager, but then he saw the dollar signs here didn’t he? So that’s fine if this is his chosen career path, but he shouldn’t detrimentally affect residents in multiple municipalities should he?
I make no secret of the fact that I always thought this was too big a plan for Swedesford Road. And at the time I couldn’t believe the people in developments across the road didn’t seem bothered by this.
Here are some interesting comments so far:
If you Google the project, here’s what comes up (in part):
Key Project Details
Location: 760 Swedesford Road, Malvern, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Capacity: Planned for 290 MW of power, with significant capacity for 2 million square feet of development.
Partnership: A joint venture between Green Fig Land Company and 1547 Critical Systems Realty.
lol Features: Designed for hyperscale users with potential rooftop solar (up to 7 MW) and high-density, interconnected capabilities.
Sorry, not sorry but residents and residents of neighboring municipalities had better wake up this time around.
The bell on the original data center being built, can’t be on wrong, but residents should have a say and be able to say no to making it bigger.
A neighboring site offers an additional 5 million square feet of development potential.
fifteenfortyseven Critical Systems Realty and Green Fig Land Co. have unveiled the latest advancements at their 100-acre hyperscale data center developmentoutside Philadelphia that could eventually comprise up to 2 million square feet of space. Lease options are now available for build-to-suit, powered shell and turnkey data center space.
Located about 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia in East Whiteland Township, Pa., the site was acquired by GFLC and 1547 in 2022. The development firm had previously received the local authorities’ approval to construct two data centers of about 1 million square feet each. An adjacent property is available for the development of data center buildings totaling up to 5 million square feet.
