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North Country Colocation Services Massena Expansion

Massena, St. Lawrence County, NY

Also known as NCCS Massena, NYDIG Massena expansion, Reynolds site data center

ProposedIn pre-submission review before the Massena Town Planning Board; the town board voted 3-2 on Sept. 16, 2026 against a proposed data center moratorium
  1. Rumored
  2. Proposed
  3. Approved
  4. Under construction
  5. Operating

North Country Colocation Services, an affiliate of the New York Digital Investment Group, has operated at the former Reynolds Metals aluminum site in Massena since 2017 and proposes a 635-megawatt expansion on about 355 developable acres next to its existing 110-acre campus, powered by St. Lawrence River hydroelectricity. The plan was scaled back during review from three buildings totaling roughly 1.5 million square feet to two data halls of about 1.1 million square feet, with backup generators cut from 316 to 124 (NCCS told the town planning board in August 2026 that the count is now 68) and cooling changed to a closed-loop system after an earlier version described withdrawing about 2.6 million gallons a day from the river. St. Lawrence County planners called an early site plan premature, and on Sept. 16, 2026 the Massena Town Board rejected a proposed six-month moratorium in a 3-2 vote.

Planned capacity
635 MW[2]
Permanent jobs (promised)
200

Key facts

Size & schedule

Planned capacity635 MW [2]
Source excerpt
“Approximately 635 megawatts”
Site size355 acres [3]
developable acres adjacent to the existing 110-acre site
Source excerpt
“355 developable acres adjacent to existing site”
Floor area1.1 million sq ft [3]
two data halls in the revised plan, down about 400,000 sq ft from the original three-building proposal
Source excerpt
“Approximately 1.1 million sq ft”
Buildings2 [3]
reduced from three during review
Permanent jobs (promised)200 [3]
Source excerpt
“approximately 200 permanent positions post-completion”
Construction jobs2,500 [3]
peak construction workforce stated as 1,800 to 2,500
Source excerpt
“Peak construction workforce of 1,800-2,500”

How big is that? Data center sizes compared with football fields and Central Park.

Power

Grid operatorNYISO [8]
NCCS says NYISO has approved 640 MW and a decision on another 200 MW is pending
Source excerpt
“They're currently approved by the New York Independent System Operator Inc. for 640 megawatts of power and are awaiting on a decision on an additional 200 megawatts.”
Power supplyHydroelectric power from the St. Lawrence River [3]
Source excerpt
“635MW, sourced from hydroelectric power on the St. Lawrence River”
Backup generators68 [8]
NCCS figure presented to the Massena Planning Board in August 2026, down from 314; DatacenterDynamics reported 124, down from 316, in July 2026
Source excerpt
“They've reduced the on-site emergency generation from 314 generators to 68 to address noise concerns.”

Water

CoolingClosed-loop, with no withdrawals or discharges to local waterways for non-contact cooling in the revised plan [3]

Money & incentives

Payments / community benefitsCommunity hosting agreement as presented by NCCS: $4 million when the first data center energizes, $8 million when the whole campus is energized, then $8 million a year rising with inflation for 14 to 20 years; up to $150 million to the town in total [8]
as described at the August 2026 Massena Planning Board meeting

Local decisions & site

Parcel / addressFormer Reynolds Metals plant, built 1958, later owned by Alcoa, whose aluminum smelter closed in 2014 [3]

Figures are as stated by the cited source. Where sources disagree, each figure is shown.

Water and power

Water

Not disclosed. No source reviewed gives a water figure for this site. The Census does not estimate one.

Power

Planned capacity635 MW [2]
Power supplyHydroelectric power from the St. Lawrence River [3]

Disclosed figures only, each as the cited source states it. Many are projections or permit limits, not metered use. How data center water and power use is measured, and every disclosed figure →

Timeline

  1. NCCS begins operating at the Reynolds industrial site in Massena, on about 110 acres [3]

  2. St. Lawrence County Planning Board chairman Vance Fleury calls the site plan premature, with too many unanswered questions; an earlier version described about 2.6 million gallons a day of river withdrawals and three buildings of 562,000, 612,000 and 400,000 sq ft [2]

  3. Local reporting counts about ten data center proposals under discussion in the Massena area, with this one furthest along [1]

  4. Massena Town Planning Board holds a pre-submission meeting to discuss consultants and determine the lead agency for environmental review [3]

  5. Gov. Kathy Hochul signs Executive Order No. 62, pausing state DEC permits for data centers of 50 MW or more [4]

  6. NCCS representatives tell the Massena Planning Board that planned on-site emergency generators have been cut from 314 to 68 to address noise concerns [8]

  7. Massena Town Board votes 3-2 against a proposed six-month moratorium on data center development [9]

Issues raised

  • An earlier version of the plan described peak withdrawals of about 2.6 million gallons a day from the river, about 1.1 million gallons a day of liquid waste discharge and roughly 1.5 million gallons a day lost to evaporation; the revised plan describes closed-loop cooling [2][3]
  • St. Lawrence County planners said the early site plan raised more questions than it answered [2]
  • The Massena Town Board rejected a data center moratorium in a split vote, unlike several other upstate towns [5]
  • St. Lawrence County passed a resolution in June 2026 affirming local authority and urging municipalities to consider moratoriums, but did not adopt one itself [6]
  • Local reporting cautions that the roughly ten proposals under discussion in Massena represent prospective activity, not commitments [1]

Issues are concerns and claims raised by the parties, officials or residents named in the cited sources. They are reported as attributed, not as findings by the Census.

Sources

  1. Massena sees 10 data center proposals
    WWNY 7 News · May 27, 2026 · news
  2. County Planning Board: Massena data center site plan contains more questions than answers
    NNY360 / Watertown Daily Times · May 18, 2026 · news
  3. NYDIG looks to expand data center at Massena site, New York
    DatacenterDynamics · Jul 7, 2026 · news
  4. Executive Order No. 62: Establishing a Temporary Moratorium on Data Centers in New York
    Office of the Governor of New York · Jul 14, 2026 · government
  5. Massena votes down proposed data center moratorium in split vote
    North Country Now · news
  6. Updates on the Cloud: More Moratoriums on Data Centers
    Rockefeller Institute of Government · Jun 10, 2026 · other
  7. North Country Colocation Services
    NCCS · company
  8. Massena Planning Board hears update from data center representatives
    NNY360 (Watertown Daily Times) · Aug 21, 2026 · news
  9. Massena town board votes down data center moratorium
    WWNY 7 News · Sep 17, 2026 · news

Cite this page

Last updated Sep 23, 2026. Figures may change as records are updated — include the date you retrieved them.

APAData Center Census. (2026). North Country Colocation Services Massena Expansion. Retrieved from https://datacentercensus.com/dc/nccs-massena-expansion-ny
MLA“North Country Colocation Services Massena Expansion.” Data Center Census, Sep 23, 2026, https://datacentercensus.com/dc/nccs-massena-expansion-ny.
Linkhttps://datacentercensus.com/dc/nccs-massena-expansion-ny

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