Plans to build a data center on more than 500 acres of land in Ransom Twp. appear to be in flux.
A White Haven developer says he no longer owns shares in the company that bought the property. A website that detailed the project is now down. He declined to identify the shareholders.
“We wanted to do that,” Sinha Shatrughan said of building a data center. “But after that, because of the Scranton Material ordinance, they couldn't get it, so [we] decided the other way around.”
Shatrughan's name is the only one listed on the Pennsylvania Department of State's incorporation papers for Mudiita Land Venture LLC, the original company which purchased the land for $2.4 million on July 14.
In November, stone quarry owner Scranton Materials LLC requested a data center zoning overlay for its 251-acre property off Newton Road. Township supervisors denied the application, which lawyers for the business have appealed.
Northeast and Northcentral Pennsylvania are inundated with data center campus proposals. There are more than a dozen in Lackawanna County alone.
Many residents oppose the industry. They continue to show up at public meetings and hearings for data centers across the region.
Hydroelectric facility
Shatrughan said on Monday that as of right now there are no plans for the land that Mudiita Land Venture LLC purchased along Ransom Road above Waste Management’s Alliance Landfill.
“Personally, I didn't want to go ahead with any sort of data center there right now,” he said.
Part of Mudiita's property could be used as a hydroelectric facility. Renewable Energy Aggregators Inc. submitted plans for the Old Forge Pumped Storage Project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 7.
The Pittston-based company plans to build a hydroelectric facility using mine water from the Old Forge borehole. The proposal appears to include part of the Mudiita property, according to FERC documents.
Seven days after the FERC plan submission, Mudiita bought the five parcels in Ransom Twp. from KF Real Estate LLC.
Shatrughan said Friday was the first time he heard of Renewable Energy Aggregators Inc.’s project. He is not sure if KF Real Estate LLC, had a previous agreement with the company.
Websites deactivated
Websites associated with the Mudiita Group, which described itself as a global business group with operations in the U.S., India and Singapore, are now shut down.
A website for Mudiita Infra advertised a “next-gen, all-electric data center campus” on a 930-plus-acre site in Lackawanna County — “purpose built for AI, cloud and multi-tenant deployment,” the website said.
It also said the project would be Pennsylvania’s first zero-gas, fully electrified hyperscale ready campus.
Efforts to reach David Bird, chairman of the Ransom Twp. Board of Supervisors, were unsuccessful Monday.
Scranton Materials denial
On Nov. 25, Scranton Materials LLC, through its lawyers Michael Mey and Justin Sulla, applied for a data center zoning overlay for its property at 819 Newton Road in Ransom Twp. The Meshoppen-based LLC proposed building six data center buildings on the property, which borders West Scranton.
Township supervisors denied the overlay after attorney Laura McGarry pointed out flaws in the hearing process and Scranton Materials LLC’s case for seeking the change. McGarry represented her mother, Susan Magnotta, a Scranton resident, who lives less than a mile from the property.
Mey, Sulla and attorney Raymond Rinaldi appealed the Ransom Twp. supervisors' decision and also argued that Magnotta has no standing, since she is not a township resident.
In June, Lackawanna County Judge Margaret Bisignani Moyle ruled that Magnotta does have standing.
