County councilman says Newark data center plan paused after deal

• A New Castle County councilman says he brokered a non-binding handshake deal to pause a data center project near Newark.
• The deal depends on the county approving an exploratory plan that would grandfather the developer into previous zoning rules.
• The developer, Shelbourne, has not commented on the informal agreement to consider other uses for the site.

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New Castle County Councilman Tim Sheldon says he recently brokered a handshake deal to pause a data center development project near Newark. 

Sheldon, who represents the Newark area, said the deal followed private negotiations with the developer’s prominent Delaware attorney, Shawn Tucker, who told him the New York-based developer behind the project, Shelbourne, agreed to consider the Newark site for uses other than a data center. “This is my art of the deal,” Sheldon said.

But the deal is dependent on the county finalizing an approval for an exploratory plan application from the developer, which would grandfather the land into zoning rules that existed prior to this year, Sheldon said.

That means the developer would not have to follow the county’s recently-passed data center regulations if the company ultimately decides to build a data center there. Since the property’s zoning already allows data center projects, the county likely does not have the legal authority to deny that exploratory plan application. An email sent between Sheldon and Tucker, dated June 10, shows that Tucker agreed to pause the data center project under those conditions. 

Neither Tucker nor Shelbourne representatives responded to requests for comment about this deal.  

Last year, Shelbourne filed documents with the county that showed plans to demolish the existing White Clay Center office and industrial buildings and construct a three-building data center campus that covered about 850,000 square feet. 

After the filing, the plans became wrapped into a larger community backlash in northern Delaware against the growth of the data center industry. Neighbors have voiced fears that such data centers would use too much water and energy, and be too noisy. 

Sheldon’s handshake agreement is not binding, and the developer still has the legal right to build a data center.

New Castle County General Manager of Land Use David Culver said he saw the email from Tucker but has no other information. 

Sheldon noted that the agreement is between him and Tucker — and not with the county as a party. He further stated that if he decides not to run for reelection in 2028 or loses to a challenger, “it may be null and void.”  

“If I’m not there, there’s no promises,” Sheldon said. 

Asked if he would try to secure an official county deal barring a data center on that property, Sheldon said the project is “too far in the process” and he doesn’t want to risk the progress he’s made. 

He said he will instead work to find another company to lease or buy the land. He said in a text after the interview that the deal is “the best I could’ve got.” 

“Nobody else has  even done this much and it seems like I’m getting hammered because I did something,” Sheldon said in the text. 

Sheldon said an Amtrak train maintenance site will open next door to the White Clay Center property in the next few years, and he thinks the track upgrades needed for that project could make the neighboring site more attractive for manufacturing. 

Delaware Public Media reported last week that Alstom, which conducts maintenance on Amtrak’s high-speed Acela trains – will open a new facility on 1601 Ogletown Road, next to the White Clay Center office and industrial buildings. 

Alstom did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The latest on data centers: Data centers could have more hoops to jump in Delaware after final push

What’s the status of data centers in Delaware?

Beyond Shelbourne’s proposal, several other building projects proposed in Delaware could become data centers. 

The biggest is Project Washington, a 1.2-gigawatt data center campus planned for the land just north of the Delaware City Refinery. It would use enough energy to power almost a million homes.

That plan faced a major setback in March after a state board unanimously upheld Environmental Secretary Greg Patterson’s decision that the project is not permitted under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act, a landmark law designed to limit heavy industry along the state’s shorelines.  

Developer Starwood Digital Ventures was expected to appeal that decision, but it is unclear whether it will. Representatives from Starwood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Another potential data center plan is slated for land near the southern approach to the St. Georges Bridge off U.S. Route 13. The St. Georges project includes the land that hosts the popular Halloween attraction Frightland.  

County records show plans for three distribution centers covering 3.6 million square feet on farmland, along with 150 homes.  

The records say the buildings will be warehouses. But project engineer Verdantas also submitted letters to the county suggesting that the buildings could be a data center campus. 

Delmarva Power filings this winter showed two other potential data center projects. But Technical.ly reported that only one of those projects is still on the table, which would be located in Harrington. City officials are still in the preliminary stages of discussions about that plan, according to the report.

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