Our towns deserve the full picture.
A 250-megawatt AI data center is being built on the former Merck campus in Kenilworth. We gather what the public record shows, so neighbors can understand it and decide for themselves.
Resident-led and nonpartisan. Every figure here traces to a public record.
What’s being built on Galloping Hill Road
Where official records disagree with one another, we show the difference rather than hide it. These figures come from borough resolutions, the May 15, 2025 site-plan hearing, state filings, and news reporting.
This is a large-scale facility for training and running artificial-intelligence systems, using specialized high-powered processors that draw enormous electricity and give off intense heat. The 250-megawatt figure reflects that scale. A typical office building runs on a tiny fraction of that power.
A facility like this needs continuous cooling and backup power. The site-plan described 31 standby generators and a yard of 29 chiller units with water tanks. That equipment is what drives the questions neighbors are asking about noise, air, water, and the grid.
The questions we’re asking together
A facility this size touches everyday life in measurable ways. These are the concerns residents have brought to public meetings and to a petition that has gathered thousands of signatures.
The electric grid
A 250-megawatt facility draws power on the order of a small city. What does that mean for grid reliability and utility costs across the region, and will the project pay its own way?
Water use
Large data centers use water to cool their equipment. The site-plan included a chiller yard with water tanks. How much water will it draw, and where will it come from?
Noise
Cooling units and generators run continuously. At the May 2025 hearing, decibel limits were discussed but not pinned down. Residents have asked for an independent study at the nearest homes.
Air and generators
The site-plan described 31 standby generators. How often will they run, including for testing, and what emissions limits apply next to a residential neighborhood?
The former lab site
The property is a former pharmaceutical campus. How are stormwater, flood risk, and any environmental obligations tied to the change of use being handled?
Home values
How might a large industrial-computing facility next to homes affect property values and quality of life over time? Residents want the effects tracked against the record.
Facts from the borough’s own records
These are documented facts drawn from the borough’s own resolutions and hearings, presented without interpretation, so you can read them and ask your own questions.
No Redevelopment Agreement has been executed
The Redevelopment Plan makes a redeveloper’s designation conditional on signing a Redevelopment Agreement with the borough. As of June 2026, that agreement has not been signed for this parcel.
The redeveloper designation has lapsed twice
Resolutions 25-129 and 25-231 each set a deadline to sign that agreement, and each provided that the designation would automatically expire if the deadline passed. Both deadlines passed without an executed agreement, in September 2025 and again in April 2026.
The records describe more than one building
The borough’s designation resolutions describe “approximately 550,000 square foot data center(s),” in the plural, while the single building now being converted is about 247,000 square feet.
The parcel was split into four lots
On April 28, 2026, the 36-acre parcel was subdivided into four new lots. The application described developing the site for a data center and related uses.
Several figures from the record do not line up with a single 40-megawatt building. The table below places the project as described next to the same figures multiplied across four similar lots. The right-hand column is simple arithmetic, not a statement of CoreWeave’s plans, and is offered only to show why residents have asked whether the full build-out is larger than one facility.
Part of a statewide conversation
Kenilworth is not alone. As AI data centers spread across New Jersey, residents and state leaders are asking how these projects should be reviewed, powered, and held accountable.
The state has officially rescinded the tax program
The Next NJ AI credit that funded this project drew significant scrutiny in Trenton, with proposals to limit or repeal it and calls for data centers to pay for their own electricity. New Jersey lawmakers passed bills A5165 and S4390 “End Data Center Tax Credits Act on June 30th 2026.
Community benefit agreements are on the table
State leaders have proposed requiring large data centers to sign community benefit agreements and to take on more of their own infrastructure costs.
Other NJ towns face the same questions
Communities including Vineland, Andover, and New Brunswick have seen similar proposals and similar public debate over notice, scale, and local impact.
You don’t need to be an expert to take part.
Here is where to start. Every signature, every meeting, and every contribution adds to the effort.
Sign the petition
Thousands of neighbors have added their names. It is one of the simplest ways to show the scale of community concern.
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Planning Board and Council meetings are open to all. Watch the borough agenda and come to listen or to speak.
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Questions, documents, or want to help organize? Reach the coalition and we will follow up.
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or write to info@ucrac.org