Brookhaven Logistics Center data center, Yaphank, New York

Wildflower's plan for a $1 billion, 176 megawatt data center at its warehouse campus on Expressway Drive North in Yaphank, Suffolk County, is on hold. The Town of Brookhaven adopted an 18-month moratorium on data centers on July 16, 2026, and a state moratorium covering projects of 50 megawatts or more took effect two days earlier. Town Attorney Annette Eaderesto said Wildflower's application was incomplete when the moratorium passed and will not be processed while it lasts.

The company, formally WF Industrial XII, wants to convert three warehouses on 71 acres into what it calls the Brookhaven Digital Infrastructure Facility, using a closed-loop cooling system that would need a one-time fill of about 700,000 gallons of water. It has not selected a tenant. Wildflower's director of development, Michael Bowden, told the town the project would bring more than 1,000 union construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs, and that annual property taxes would rise from $1.8 million to $40 million.

Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich said the plant "would represent 50% of the total electricity use of the entire Town of Brookhaven," and that its 78 proposed backup generators, all running, would be "comparable in emissions output to [approximately] 12,000 trucks." A noise study found the site would need sound mitigation "especially at night and especially along the western side of the property," he said. About 70 people rallied outside Town Hall for a permanent ban before a six-hour hearing on the moratorium.

The moratorium runs until early 2028 while the town's planning department writes the first zoning rules for data centers, coordinating with the electric utility LIPA and the Suffolk County Water Authority, which says the developer has not yet applied for the water it would need. Wildflower said it was reviewing the state order but has not said whether it will try to move the project forward.