Cetronia Road Data Center, Upper Macungie, Pennsylvania

Air Products has dropped its plan for the Cetronia Road Data Center, a 2.6 million square foot campus on its former headquarters site in Upper Macungie Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, after the township zoning hearing board blocked it and the company let its time to appeal run out. The project would have put three buildings on 194 acres along Hamilton Boulevard and Cetronia Road, the largest about 1.23 million square feet.

Regional planners found the application thin. "Due to the haste with which the plans were submitted, they did not include essential information that is expected with a hyperscale data center submission," said Lehigh Valley Planning Commission planner Jill Seitz; the review asked Air Products to state the campus's total electrical load, confirm PPL could serve it, and show its water use under drought conditions. Commissioner John Gallagher called it "a 'spaghetti on the wall' proposal here, just thrown together to beat the rules."

Air Products asked the zoning hearing board to treat a data center as a use similar to those allowed in the Light Industrial district, which required showing the use would "clearly be less intensive in external impacts and nuisances" than permitted uses. At a standing-room-only hearing in May 2026, the company's attorney arrived an hour late and asked for a third continuance; the board refused and unanimously denied the request.

State Sen. Jarrett Coleman told residents, "I don't think Pennsylvania is the right fit, and I certainly don't think the Lehigh Valley is the right fit." The board confirmed the denial in writing in July, and Air Products said in August 2026 it would not appeal: "Air Products has a long history in the Lehigh Valley, and we remain committed to maintaining positive relationships in the communities where we operate."

It has not said what it plans to do with the site. Upper Macungie had already taken action on a new data center zoning ordinance before the Air Products filing became public, so any future proposal on the site would need to meet the township's newer rules.