ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The developer behind plans for a hyperscale data center in Northampton County wants to bring a smaller facility to Allentown.
J.G. Petrucci Company this month submitted plans for a 146,000-square-foot data center at 1024 N. Bradford St., according to Frank Kane, the city’s managing director.
It's the second data center proposal in the city; Quantm Group in May filed plans for a quarter-million-square-foot facility on Emaus Avenue.
Allentown’s planning department is analyzing the Bradford Street proposal, and officials are working to determine which version of the city’s new data center ordinance they should use to review it, Kane said.
Council in mid-June passed legislation that restricted data centers to the city’s two “most intense” industrial zones, instituted setbacks for some types of nearby properties, and established requirements for extensive studies on potential impacts to neighbors, local utilities and the environment.
Members this month further limited where data centers can open in the city by confining them to one industrial zone while requiring larger setbacks and lot sizes for some facilities.
Council solicitor Maria Montero has said the new regulations should apply to the Bradford Street proposal due to the pending ordinance doctrine.
That legal principle allows Pennsylvania municipalities to evaluate some projects using regulations that were introduced before a proposal’s submission even if they were not yet approved.
Allentown officials received J.G. Petrucci’s data center application hours before City Council’s Aug. 5 meeting, where members unanimously approved Bill 52.
Under the pending ordinance doctrine, those new zoning regulations for data centers were in place since June 24, when the city advertised its intent to pursue related legislative changes, according to Montero.
But the Commonwealth Court in 2022 ruled that the pending ordinance doctrine does not apply to land development proposals, making it unclear which set of regulations the Bradford Street proposal will be reviewed against.
Too close?
The new legislation increased data centers' required setback from "sensitive receptors" – like homes, schools and child care facilities – from 200 feet to 500 feet.
The northern edge of the Executive Education Academy Charter School property sits across Bradford Street from the proposed data center property, well within the setbacks required in either version of the ordinance.
Coca-Cola Park, the home of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, looms over the property where a developer wants to build a data center. (Jason Addy/Lehigh Valley Public Media)
The developer would be unable to build on much of the property if the facility must be at least 200 feet from the charter school's property line; data centers must also be at least 75 feet from public roads, which surround the property, under the city's ordinance.
It would be virtually impossible to build the 146,000-square-foot facility if it must be 500 feet from the charter school property.
Bill 52’s approval also requires data centers over 50,000 feet be housed on a property spanning at least 8 acres; the minimum lot size was set at 5 acres in the previous version of the ordinance.
Online realty listings say the overgrown property in the shadow of Coca-Cola Park covers more than 13 acres, but it’s shown as three distinct parcels on Lehigh County’s online tax map. That could require the developer to secure zoning approval to consolidate lots.
The Bradford Street data center proposal also is set to be reviewed by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, which looks at projects of regional significance.
The developer is in the process of submitting its plans with the LVPC, according to Matt Assad, the organization’s managing editor.
Representatives from J.G. Petrucci did not respond Tuesday to a request for more details about its data center proposal on Allentown’s East Side.
The company, along with Peron Development and Talen Energy, in early 2026 announced plans for a data center campus in Lower Mount Bethel Township. Since, residents have been pushing back against the mooted proposal, which has not yet been formally submitted.
And officials there are weighing an ordinance to regulate data centers within the township’s boundaries. Supervisors are expected to vote next month on those regulations.