DataVerge data center, Jersey City, New Jersey

DataVerge, a Brooklyn colocation company, runs a small backup and disaster recovery data center called NJ1 at 111 Town Square Place in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, with 10,000 square feet of space, 600 kilowatts of power and a matching diesel generator for backup. The site mainly lets customers at DataVerge's Industry City headquarters in Brooklyn replicate their data across the river, and the hosting company InterServer also leases space there. Jersey City's new ban on data centers exempts NJ1 because it sits inside a shared office building rather than standing alone on industrial land, so no vote on this site is pending.

The City Council voted unanimously on August 19, 2026 to pass Ordinance 26-057, removing "cyber hotels" and data centers as allowed uses on industrial land, after the Planning Board recommended it 6-0 on June 30 and the council passed a first reading on July 15. Mayor James Solomon said the city already has five data centers inside shared office buildings, which the law does not affect: "Data centers eat up power, drive up utility bills for every ratepayer in this state, and employ almost nobody."

Resident Abril Rios supported the ban: "I think a lot of A.I. data centers have been going up without confirmation of the community, so it is really important that we have input before anything happens." Resident Brenden Clark asked the council to regulate rather than ban data centers, pointing to a 15.5% property tax increase: "We are telling homeowners we need more reoccurring revenue, yet at the same time we are considering an ordinance eliminating a category of capital-intensive development from our industrial property."

Jersey City is now the 34th New Jersey municipality to ban data centers, joining Bayonne and more than 30 other towns and cities across the state. Some council members have called for a statewide moratorium similar to the one New York Governor Kathy Hochul put in place in July 2026.