Apex Data Center Scrapped

A massive data center project in the Raleigh area is no longer moving forward, the Triangle Business Journal reported.

Plans for the project, called New Hill Digital Campus, were pulled by Maryland firm Natelli Investments last week. The project was proposed for the town of Apex in Wake County.

The developer initially proposed a 250-megawatt data center complex for metro Raleigh in September, CBS 17 reported. It was to be built out on 189 acres of former farmland in the New Hill community near the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant. The project reportedly would have included several 70-foot buildings and about 80 3 MW generators.

On Thursday, however, Michael Natelli, executive vice president of the company, reportedly announced his firm would withdraw annexation and rezoning applications. 

Natelli’s decision followed months of debate over the project, ABC 11 reported.

Natelli told the TBJ that he felt the project was “no closer to getting a decision from the town” and that Apex did not currently have “the appetite politically” to support it. 

The local pushback against Natelli’s project began immediately after rezoning was requested last fall, with opponents appealing to county legislators to stop it. A petition against the center garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

The New Hill project’s halted plans are just the most recent addition to a nationwide slew of proposed data center developments that were scrapped due to local pushback.

North Carolina has seen an influx of data center proposals amid the rise of artificial intelligence, with several projects paused as opponents protest against issues like intensive power and water usage and the displacement of longtime homes and businesses. The town of Tarboro rejected a proposal from Energy Storage Solutions in December.

Some jurisdictions across the state, like Chatham County, have placed one-year moratoriums on new data center permits.

With the Natelli project halted, Apex leaders are mulling whether to impose their own one-year moratorium on data centers, ABC 11 reported. A meeting will be held Tuesday to decide on the moratorium, WRAL News reported.

Despite powerful local resistance to data centers, North Carolina is expected to roughly double its capacity to 6 gigawatts in the next decade, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors Carolinas report released last month. A February JLL report says the state is part of a secondary wave of data center markets becoming more attractive to developers.

North Carolina boasts 40 data centers today, bringing developers to the region thanks to factors like strong grid coverage, abundant availability of rural land, business-friendly taxes and state incentives, ABC Carolinas said.

Natelli reportedly released a statement saying it may revisit the plan if the town’s zoning ordinance is altered to allow for it.