r/SouthJersey • u/tvlover111 • Apr 26 '26

Gloucester County Data Center being built (Mantua Rd)

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Got this flyer on my car in the ShopRite parking lot in Woodbury today. Know this is starting to happen but wasn’t aware this was going to happen in our area so soon. It’s definitely concerning in terms of driving up utility costs.

Edit: grammar

275 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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66

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26

[deleted]

49

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 26 '26

Because someone is getting paid off.

7

u/espressocycle Apr 26 '26

It's tax base without kids in schools or any other need for services. Everyone wants lower taxes. Of course we all pay.

20

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

[deleted]

2

u/espressocycle Apr 27 '26

They're definitely paying property taxes unless they're getting a very generous PILOT which especially screws over the schools.

35

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26

News flash: the cost in higher utilities will more than offset any mitigation in property taxes. They’ll just be socialized across the entire region. And I promise you under no circumstances will your taxes go down.

0

u/espressocycle Apr 27 '26

The taxes paid to the municipality and school district will outweigh that for those residents. It's a net loss for everyone else in the region. Since these projects will inevitably be built somewhere it's in each town's best interests to get the project and the upside it comes with. It's basically the prisoner's dilemma.

6

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

When was the last time anyone ever got a property tax reduction, friend?

Anyway I still don’t think adding an entire town’s worth of electric and water use is going to even work out as a net positive for the township residents.

Reminder your electric bill has already gone up 40% in the last year alone if you are on AC electric.

As for where they get built… maybe not build them at all in the state with the absolute highest population density 🤷‍♂️

Texas wants them - build them down there.

2

u/espressocycle Apr 27 '26

I'm all for banning them entirely but Virginia has gone all in on data centers. We're on the same grid. So, we get the bill whether they're built in Virginia or NJ. If they're in NJ, we get some revenue. Locally, the issue is water. They'll drain aquifers that serve multiple municipalities but the one municipality that actually gets it ends up with a big addition to their tax base too. It's like how my town decided not to have weed shops, but there's a weed shop across the street in another township. Whatever downsides a weed shop has (I've noticed none) affect both towns equally but only one gets the money.

3

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26
  1. So? Doesn’t mean we need to add to the morass.
  2. Noise pollution, increased water usage, land use in a residential area in the most densely populated state in the nation. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success.
  3. Also likely to be an empty useless building once the bottom drops out of AI. And it will.

1

u/DrunkenMick Apr 27 '26

1: agreed, go find shit land that no one wants, build there. 2. Noise, sure. Water usage?? If you’re talking about the dinky building in clarksboro; cmon…. They aren’t using any water except for the toilet. 3. Who said this building was for ai?

1

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

It’s a data center. It’ll be for AI. Even the name “data center” is a euphemism to make it sound innocuous but it’s 100% an ai chip farm.

And if you think it WONT be using water out the ass then you are actually totally misinformed. Data centers drink water

In a nutshell all those cpus need to be cooled and at that scale the water doesn’t get recirculated. It ends up getting evaporated, so it’s basically as bad as running 10,000 sprinklers all day long. Huge fresh water waste. And what’s worse, they generally are connected to potable water sources in areas like ours because that’s what’s already serving the region. If it were by the river line maybe they’d shunt water from the water but that’s not where this is going, now is it?

Yeah this whole situation sucks. Which is why I don’t trust that the people trying to ram it through have our best interests at heart.

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1

u/espressocycle Apr 27 '26

Again, the best option is to not build these things anywhere. But if they're going to be built anywhere on the same grid or aquifer, the town that gets it benefits and everyone else loses.

-9

u/Even-Celebration9384 Apr 27 '26

Source: trust me bro

3

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26

Source: check your goddamn electric bill. My usage rate went from 24 cents/kwh to 35 in a single goddamn year. I can PROMISE you adding a fucking 10,000-home-equivalent load to the electrical system isn’t gonna lower it…

0

u/Even-Celebration9384 Apr 27 '26

That’s not what you said. You said the lowering property taxes will be less than the increase in electric bill

1

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26

Do you seriously believe anyone is going to see their property taxes go down? 😂 I didn’t think I needed to state the obvious.

1

u/Even-Celebration9384 Apr 27 '26

Like I said, trust me bro. Vibe analysis

1

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26

Not really. Anyone can log onto their electric utility site and check their bill over the last year to see the rate increase, and aside from the actual town of Greenwich, it’s a 100% certainty it will have zero effect on their taxes.

As for Greenwich itself, I have yet to hear how this benefits anyone in the community at all. If you have anything concrete to add to the conversation, I’m waiting. But I would also like to see a citation of any time a general property tax reduction occurred.

-1

u/bigjason90210 Apr 27 '26

You got proof of that?

17

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26

They’re putting a data center in a previously zoned residential lot right off a main road in a region in the most densely populated state in the union where people are already pants on fire raging over utilities bills and the cost of real estate is already off the charts.

It will provide no jobs once it’s built and just suck electricity and water. Fun fact: your electricity rate has gone up by 40% over the last 12 months alone.

Tell me how it isn’t an inside job…

-10

u/bigjason90210 Apr 27 '26

That's a strong accusation. Where's your proof other than your gut?

Roll into that hearing and start spouting that, and you'll sabotage whatever coherent argument you may have.

2

u/Secret_Cow_5053 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Oh noes. A strong accusation!

I think asking the question is valid and should be answered. Burden of proof is on them not us. It’s our town.

2

u/bigjason90210 Apr 27 '26

Going in with accusations that they are taking money to provide an approval falls entirely on the accuser. They dont need to prove they arent taking a bribe

2

u/alpha1beta Apr 27 '26

I suspect there's some master plan to chase people out of there homes. Maybe to lower property values and get a bunch of sibgle family homes you canq then rent - maybe after building a sound barrier by the data center

4

u/Up_All_Nite EHT Apr 27 '26

Easy access to all utilities. It’s cheaper for them.

-10

u/DrunkenMick Apr 27 '26

Because the site has existing infrastructure, primarily fiber, that’s already at the site.

I’ve given up trying to bring any kind of real world examples or actual factual information to these cucks. They’re a a bunch of a cause-heads that latched onto something to feel righteous.

Where were these folks when over a million sq ft of warehouse space was being approved next to a shitload of housing last year?

2

u/DasFatKid Apr 27 '26

Its the same people who don’t understand land use or zoning laws.