Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus data center, Tonawanda, New York

The Riverview Innovation & Technology Campus, a proposed 300 megawatt AI data center on the former Tonawanda Coke site on River Road in the Town of Tonawanda, Erie County, New York, is suspended behind a grid study and a town moratorium. On August 3, 2026, the Town Board voted unanimously for a one year moratorium on data centers of 20 megawatts or more, two months after the site's owners, developers Jon Williams and John Yensan, paused the town's review of their application. Riverview said after the vote it would keep reviewing its options with legal counsel.

The plan, filed with the town planning board in spring 2026, calls for a 500,000 square foot data center on the 140 acre campus at 3800 and 3875 River Road, with up to $2 billion invested. Williams and Yensan bought the site at auction in 2019 for $1, the only bid, and their remediation firm has led an estimated $100 million cleanup of the former coke plant, which closed around 2018 after Tonawanda Coke Corp. went bankrupt and was fined about $25 million for hazardous emissions.

The developers, who have not named their data center partner, hope to break ground late in 2026 and finish by the end of 2027. The project includes a planned $50 million electrical substation and, the developers say, would run on about 91% emission free electricity from the Niagara Power Project and the Nine Mile Point nuclear station without raising electricity prices.

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York opposes the project and wants the corridor used for unionized renewable power and storage instead. "We have no say in this," said Jim Jones, a former town engineer who chairs the coalition's board. "These computers, they burn out. Is this just going to be adding to our hazardous waste?" asked Bridge Rauch, the coalition's environmental justice organizer. Resident Jamie Moore told the packed June 3, 2026 planning board meeting that cooling systems for such projects "typically operate at 75 to 105 decibels or greater."

State Sen. Jeremy Zellner, who represents Tonawanda, said the project's 300 megawatt power load is "going to be just about as much electricity as my entire district uses." In early June, Town Supervisor John Flynn said the developer had asked to pause its application because of a "backlog" at the New York Independent System Operator, which studies the project's grid impact; Riverview said its SEQRA and site plan reviews were only "temporarily delayed" while it awaits word from NYISO and National Grid on transmission upgrades and cost.

Tonawanda's moratorium mirrors a state one Gov. Kathy Hochul signed in July, pausing new data centers above 50 megawatts for up to a year. The Town Board plans to write new data center zoning rules during its moratorium year, which runs through August 3, 2027; when Riverview's review resumes, its site plan goes back to the planning board under any new rules, and its power supply still depends on NYISO's grid study and National Grid.