Niagara Digital Campus data center, Niagara Falls, New York

The Niagara Digital Campus, a $1.5 billion, 135-megawatt data center proposed by Niagara Falls Redevelopment (NFR) in the South End of Niagara Falls, Niagara County, won the zoning it needed in June 2026 as part of a settlement ending years of litigation between the company and the city. The deal rezoned NFR's land east of 907 Falls Street for the data center campus, while NFR handed the city the 10-acre property at 907 Falls Street for its planned Centennial Park arena in return for $4.029 million.

NFR, a subsidiary of New York City-based Milstein Properties, owns more than 140 acres in Niagara Falls and plans the campus with Urbacon, a Toronto construction company with data centers in Canada. The plan calls for about 600,000 square feet of data center space, with its first phase now planned on NFR land on 15th Street, behind the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church complex on Falls Street.

Its 2024 zoning application described eight two-story buildings and one one-story building, 1,232,715 square feet in all, across about 53 acres bounded by John B. Daly Boulevard, Falls Street, 15th Street and Buffalo Avenue, built in five phases. NFR says the campus would bring at least 500 permanent jobs, and Urbacon has pointed to Niagara's hydroelectric power and a northern climate that needs less mechanical cooling.

The fight was over land, not only the data center. NFR unveiled the campus as the city moved to take 907 Falls Street by eminent domain for Centennial Park, and Mayor Robert Restaino said then: "It's not the best use for that property. That's a gateway into the city." The land sits in an area zoned for residential, commercial and other non-industrial uses, and the city's 2022 High Energy Use Law put tough noise and other restrictions on high-energy-use industrial facilities.

The Niagara Falls Planning Board found NFR's revised application incomplete, and both the city and Niagara County planning boards rejected the company's request to loosen the High Energy Use Law. Court-sanctioned mediation this year led to what some have called the "Two-Project Solution," and the settlement commits the city to grant NFR the approvals for its Planned Unit Development, subdivide parcels and close streets at the company's request.

NFR paid $1.43 million for the two parcels it is handing over for $4.029 million. At a contentious council meeting on June 3, speakers split: one said both projects "will create a significant number of jobs for the building trades," and another warned that "These machines require and contaminate a lot of water, and once it's gone, we don't get it back."

Marybeth Nugent, whose Gadawski's Restaurant is surrounded by NFR property, was unconvinced: "They haven't done anything in all this time, so maybe they just made $4 million off of us." Restaino has said the settlement was not a green light for construction: "Last night wasn't the approval of a data center. There are still things that have to happen for that to occur."

NFR has controlled more than 140 acres of South End land for more than two decades without completing a development, and Restaino said nothing in the agreement requires it to build. A majority of the city council later balked at authorizing the $4.029 million payment from the city's fund balance.

The bigger obstacle may now be Albany: in July 2026 Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order blocking construction of data centers operating above 50 megawatts for up to a year while state officials write new rules on the environment and the grid, and an NFR spokesperson said the company had not yet seen the order and had no comment. City officials say NFR must still obtain local and state approvals before construction on the Niagara Digital Campus can begin.