Frightland Data Center, Middletown, Delaware

Parkway Gravel Inc. wants to turn the St. Georges Business Park, land that includes the Frightland Halloween attraction near Middletown in New Castle County, Delaware, into an industrial site that could become a data center. The company's engineering firm, Verdantas, filed revised plans in November 2025 covering 3.2 million square feet along U.S. Route 13, arguing that data centers need "far less" parking than other industrial uses, and county planners say they have "not received any clarification on the proposed use."

County Council members split on the plan: Janet Kilpatrick said "we need to get our tax base up, and we need to get people jobs," while Dave Carter said "we're losing ground, but it could get a whole lot worse if we don't get some reasonable controls in place." In March 2026 the county council passed Carter's data center rules 12-0, requiring new data centers to sit at least 1,000 feet from the nearest home unless a noise study allows 500 feet, plus closed-loop cooling and money set aside for eventual demolition. The rules apply only to new projects, and whether they cover the St. Georges site, which entered the pipeline as warehouses, remains unclear; the county's land use department did not answer the question.

Delaware's Coastal Zone Act is the other hurdle: the state ruled that Starwood Digital Ventures' nearby Project Washington violated the 1971 law, a state board upheld that ruling, and Starwood dropped its court appeal in July 2026, leaving that project unable to proceed as designed. The St. Georges site would also fall under the Coastal Zone Act, and whether the law stops it will likely depend on how the site is powered. New Castle County's land use department is reviewing the plans, and the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will rule on the Coastal Zone Act question.