Real estate firm NorthPoint Development is looking to develop a data center park outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
First reported by BizJournal and others, NorthPoint this week gained approval to alter plans at its Keystone Trade Center in Bucks County to accommodate some 2 million sq ft (185,805 sqm) of data centers – and also to amend 1.35 million sq ft (125,420 sqm) of previously approved planned distribution centers for data center uses.
The Falls Township board of supervisors approved the requests during a meeting this week. The requests had been recommend for approval by the local planning commission.
The previously approved Phase III, at 700 S. Port Road, originally included four distribution facilities on 247 acres. This has now been revised to ten single- or two-story data center buildings ranging from 112,000 sq ft to 217,000 sq ft (10,405 sqm to 20,160 sqm) for a digital infrastructure campus.
NorthPoint’s representative during the meeting, Mike Meginniss, said the company has entered into a new agreement with a new user, which has necessitated the change in plan. Further details were not shared.
The company also filed to amend plans for building 6 of phase II at the Keystone Center, at 1 Ben Fairless Drive. NorthPoint originally envisioned a 1.35 million sq ft distribution facility, but after discussions with an end-user, is now pivoting to data centers.
The Keystone Trade Center is built on the former US Steel site in Fairless Hills. The 1,850+ acre site is being redeveloped for up to 15 million sq ft of logistics and industrial space. NorthPoint first acquired the property in 2020 for $160 million from US Steel, with some 14 buildings originally planned. Since breaking ground in 2022, phases I and II have been completed and fully leased.
Plans for at least one 1 million sq ft data center at the Keystone Center surfaced – possibly the Building 6 amendment – last year from one of Keystone’s tenants at the site.
NorthPoint Development is a Kansas City-based commercial real estate operating company focused on residential and industrial developments. The company has plans to develop an extensive data center business, saying it has 37 powered land sites across 17 states, totaling more than 15,600 acres and 4.8GW of potential capacity.
Earlier this year NorthPoint, filed to develop a 1,283-acre, 15-building campus in Hazle Township’s 3,000-acre Humboldt North Industrial Park. Known as Project Hazlenut, work on the first five buildings would start in Q4 2026.
