MONTVALE, N.J.—A Russo–Hekemian development venture has asked the borough to confirm that existing zoning permits a nearly 322,000-square-foot data center at the former KPMG property, ahead of a Nov. 18 court hearing on an affordable housing agreement that includes that development option.
The amended agreement would allow the developer to build either 250 homes, including 50 affordable units, or an enterprise data center alongside 50 affordable units. The property is a 34-acre tract at 3 and 51 Chestnut Ridge Road.
Cherry Hills-based Fair Share Housing Center opposes the amendment, citing potential noise, air pollution and other impacts on residents living near the facility. Montvale and the developer support the arrangement and plan to present testimony at the hearing.
The zoning request makes clear “H&R intends to develop the data center on the KPMG site,” Edward Russo, chief executive officer of Russo Development and a manager of the property’s owner, H&R Montvale LLC, said in an Oct. 27 certification filed with the court.
H&R Montvale LLC is a joint venture between affiliates of Russo Development and The Hekemian Group, LLC.
Russo said the venture had obtained verbal confirmation from Montvale that the proposed center complies with the borough’s OR-2 Office-Research Zone. The zoning permit application seeks confirmation that it could proceed without variances, subject to approval of a conforming site plan.
The Nov. 18 hearing concerns the amended fourth-round affordable housing agreement. Russo’s certification anticipates a separate application for site-plan approval. It was unclear whether Judge Lina Corriston would rule at the hearing or afterward.
Application seeks zoning determination
Pascack Press reviewed an Oct. 26 letter from the Beattie Padovano law firm, hand-delivered to Montvale Construction Official Christopher Gruber and included as Exhibit K in S. Hekemian Group’s court filing.
The letter describes a proposed 321,949-square-foot data center and requests confirmation that the use is permitted in the OR-2 zone. Signed by attorney Antimo L. Del Vecchio, it accompanied a zoning permit application, a zoning plan dated Oct. 23 and a $250 filing fee.
The materials were included in a 466-page court filing submitted Oct. 27. A presentation depicts 6.383 acres devoted to the 50 affordable units, arranged in two three-story buildings with 103 parking spaces.
Ghassali told residents at a borough gathering in October that opponents of AI data centers have come from as far away as Philadelphia to attend local meetings. He described the facility proposed for the 34-acre KPMG site as “a back-up data center.” He said the financial company proposing it hoped to support services such as online banking.
Ghassali compared the proposed facility with the data centers that handle Google searches, saying the KPMG facility would use less water and electricity. He said the existing zoning permits a data center on the property.
Ghassali said he plans to hold a town meeting after the court issues its decision. If the court approves the amendment, he said, more information about the facility’s operations will be made public. He said noise from the proposed enterprise data center would be quieter than background traffic on the nearby Garden State Parkway
Fair Share challenges proposal
Fair Share spokesperson Jag Davies said the application underscored that the data center proposal was “a real and immediate concern.”
“In their certification, the developer uses the South Brunswick data center as an example of what this will be similar to and that it is the same developer, which is one of the data centers with the most opposition in New Jersey,” Davies told us.
Davies also challenged the borough’s use of the affordable housing process.
“Municipalities have many options for meeting their affordable housing requirements, but using the process to sneak a data center through the back door isn’t one of them,” he said.
He pointed to Ghassali’s Aug. 12 email to residents promising “full transparency and open communication throughout the process” if data center plans were presented. That message outlined town hall and small-group meetings and a commitment to “share information with the community as it becomes available.”
Developer outlines facility
In its court presentation, H&R distinguishes the proposed enterprise data center from larger campuses serving artificial intelligence and cloud computing customers.
The developer describes a single building of fixed size with one corporate occupant operating its own systems. It projects total electrical demand of no more than 30 megawatts and a closed-loop, air-cooled design with no evaporative water consumption.
The presentation also lists water use of about 11,500 gallons a day, approximately $1 million in annual payment-in-lieu-of-taxes revenue and a distance of about 537 feet to the nearest proposed affordable housing unit.
Russo said the building would meet the zone’s height, floor area, coverage and setback requirements.
“The proposed data center is a conforming use in the existing zone and continues a use already on the site,” he said in his certification. “Like the office and research uses the district was designed for, it is an enclosed building with no outdoor storage or distribution activity … It is a secure, controlled-access facility with few visitors, and it generates less traffic than other permitted uses, including the office space it replaces.”
Russo also cited data centers his affiliates have developed near homes elsewhere in the region. One at 1700 MacArthur Boulevard in Mahwah, leased to a major financial services firm, is 256 feet from the nearest home, according to his certification. Another is in Orangeburg, N.Y.
The developer’s filings support its case for including the data center and affordable housing on the same property. Fair Share’s objections and the borough’s position are scheduled to come before the court Nov. 18.