Three data centers potentially as large as Walmart Supercenters were proposed for Columbia’s McGinness Innovation Park under a $6.35 million bid rejected by Columbia Borough Council in May.
Through a right to know request submitted to Columbia Borough, LNP | LancasterOnline recently obtained a redacted copy of Saadia Holding LLC’s proposal to buy and redevelop the former airport as a data center campus for modern enterprise and hyperscale tenants.
LNP | LancasterOnline requested the proposal on May 18, the day that council opened the bid, but the borough said the proposal was exempt from the state open records law until council voted to accept or reject it. After council rejected the bid, LNP | LancasterOnline resubmitted the request. The borough invoked a 30-day time extension before releasing the document last week.
About one-third of the proposal’s 27 pages had portions that were redacted or blacked out. The borough didn’t immediately respond Tuesday when asked for a specific reason for concealing these items. However, the borough previously said that the open records law exempts financial information a bidder includes in a proposal to demonstrate the bidder’s economic capability.
The proposal laid out two concepts for the site – one including three one-story data center buildings of 233,000 square feet each, and another where the three buildings had a smaller footprint but an unspecified height.
An estimated 150 to 200 permanent jobs were expected along with 500 to 600 construction jobs, according to the proposal. Full buildout would have taken four to five years and cost $87.5 million to $90 million, not including costs like acquisition, site work and utility work.
Saadia didn’t specify a tenant or tenants, or whether the centers would be used to run artificial intelligence models.
Council unanimously rejected the bid at a May 26 meeting because the proposal didn’t guarantee payment within 60 days of council approving it, something required under state law. Some members said at the meeting that they opposed data centers, and more than 40 residents spoke out against the project during public comment.
Council continued talks with Saadia as it planned to rebid the 41-acre property. However it voted 4-3 on July 14 to support an ordinance prohibiting new data centers in the light business zone where McGinness is located. The ordinance still requires a public hearing and final vote, but would create a major roadblock if Saadia wanted to rebid.
The borough bought McGinness – the largest undeveloped property in the borough – in 2021 for $1.5 million. It has invested a total $3.99 million into the former private airstrip, including $1.18 million from a state loan.
The borough manager, solicitor, and Saadia’s attorney didn’t return messages seeking comment on the proposal.
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