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Data centers could soon arrive in Groton, Bozrah and Griswold.
Montville and Norwich, also candidates for data centers, are a little further away from setting up such facilities.
During the last legislative session, lawmakers adopted a measure Ease the burden of property tax and sales tax on data center developers for 20 to 30 years, depending on the size of the developer’s investment. The move is important for eastern Connecticut, a potential landing point for such facilities, which can help grow a city’s big list.
A qualified data center is defined as a facility that hosts networked computer servers in one location, centralizing the storage and distribution of data.
Gotspace Data Partners LLC, a Groton-based company, has hosting deals in Groton, Wallingford, Griswold and Bozrah. Griswold also adopted the necessary zoning changes. Hosting agreements with cities require data centers to pay fees due to long-term tax abatement created by the state. While critics argue that data centers would pay more if taxed, developers have indicated they won’t build at all without favorable taxes.
Groton City Manager John Burt said city staff members have met and spoken “semi-regularly” with Gotspace.
“They generated a lot of interest in their sites. Gotspace is currently focusing more on working with Groton Utilities to formally submit an electricity request, ”Burt wrote in an email. “I hope things go quickly, but it’s always difficult to gauge what will happen with big projects. “
Gotspace is currently paying for the right to purchase Groton properties. Once the developer is ready, they can trigger the sale.
“I understand they are in the process of officially purchasing these parts,” Burt added.
The Bozrah Planning and Zoning Commission was due to meet on Wednesday for a public hearing on the zoning change to allow Gotspace to build on the site. The commission called it a “request to amend the zoning by-law of the town of Bozrah by adding” a “technology park district” which would establish “a floating zone”, in the notice of hearing.
Commission Chairman Stephen Seder said if the public hearing, which he expects to be rescheduled soon, goes well, the commission must decide how to move forward with zoning.
“We are a small town, we don’t have a lot of infrastructure and we are a fairly conservative town,” he said. “We try to balance everything with the character of the city. Will it be a good fit? Probably. But there are still a lot of questions we have. It’s all in the details … It’s dollars, but dollars don’t replace the character of the city.
If the commission agrees to change the zoning after the public hearings, then it will “go ahead with a master plan,” Seder said.
While Gotspace has expressed interest in a location in Norwich – such a possible location is included on his website – no hosting agreement has been concluded.
Montville has plans for a data center in place since 2019, when the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a site map for the first phase of the project. Developer Verde Group LLC had hoped to build two large data storage buildings – 87,000 and 166,000 square feet, each with an office, electrical room, and data room with computer and network equipment – on 65 acres, with a possibility of potential expansion on 300- land of one hectare.
The city’s planning director, Marcia Vlaun, said in March that the Verde Group was still ready to develop the data center between Route 32 and the Thames, but had not taken the next step. But Joel Greene, who formed Verde Group LLC and lobbied for the data center, died in July, Montville Mayor Ron McDaniel wrote in an email. Greene was being sued for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of good faith and fair dealing, and breach of contract relating to the Montville data center project.
“The managers were involved in a property dispute and it was not resolved and has been put on hold,” McDaniel wrote.
He said Montville had implemented permissive zoning for a data center, “but no plan was filed, and they didn’t approach the city to negotiate a hosting deal like they did. to Groton and Wallingford “.
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