The revitalization of the former Androscoggin Mill in Jay has been in the works for years and a data center that has become part of those plans could be jeopardized by pending state legislation.

JGT2 Redevelopment purchased the site of the former mill two years ago, and a number of related projects, including a waste processing site and a wood plant, have been making their runs through the local planning board.

But to the developers’ dismay, the Legislature is considering a bill that would stop the development of new data centers in the state for more than a year. Data facilities house computers to store data and run online applications and services, including powering artificial intelligence. 

“We’ve been thinking, ‘Why doesn’t anybody know about this?'” Tony McDonald, a partner with JGT2 Redevelopment, said of the proposed data center in a phone interview Friday night. “We haven’t been trying to keep it a secret.”

McDonald supposes that’s because they haven’t had to ask the local planning board for anything. No zoning changes are required, he said, because they are building the data center into an existing structure on the industrial property. They also aren’t seeking tax breaks or public funding.

“We haven’t meant to be a stealth project, but I guess we kind of have been,” McDonald said.

JGT2 Redevelopment purchased the mill site from Pixelle Specialty Solutions in 2023. Since then, JayCo of Bangor purchased the landfill and wastewater treatment section of the former Androscoggin Mill, which is to become a waste processing center. Part of the mill was brought down last year to make way for Godfrey Wood Products, a wood manufacturing facility.

Last month, Walden Renewables proposed what could result in one of Maine’s largest solar energy facilities near the property.

McDonald, who is a partner with the Boulos Company, a commercial real estate firm in Maine and New Hampshire, said he understands the state’s fear of the “hyperscaler” data centers that have popped up elsewhere in the country. He recognized that those kinds of projects are often a drain on local resources, especially electricity and water.

But McDonald said that isn’t the case with the data center project in Jay, which is supposed to begin construction this summer.

The project won’t impact the grids of Central Maine Power Co. or ISO New England because it doesn’t have to, he said. The mill has long generated its own power onsite.

“As a result, there’s no negative impact on ratepayers,” McDonald said.

And while the data center will use water, McDonald said, it will use far less than the former paper mill did.

“This whole project just doesn’t have much of a hit on local resources,” he said.

The moratorium bill, LD 307, would create a temporary limitation on data centers with electric loads of at least 20 megawatts by preventing the state, local governments and quasi-governmental agencies from issuing permits or other approvals until 90 days after the first session of the 133rd Legislature adjourns.

That will likely be around October 2027, according to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Melanie Sachs, D-Freeport.

That would give a new Data Center Coordination Council, also created by the bill, time to study and review the potential impacts of building the centers in Maine. The Department of Energy Resources would be responsible for convening the body.

The data center council would be tasked with evaluating data centers’ effects on the environment, the state’s infrastructure and Mainers’ utility bills.

Data centers require significant amounts of power to operate. They could consume up to 12% of the country’s total electricity usage by 2028, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Sachs has said the restriction is designed to address future growth without impeding projects that are already well underway, such as one in Limestone at the former Loring Air Force Base, which is on track to be Maine’s first large-scale AI data center, though it’s not yet clear when that site could open for business.

But other projects, including in Wiscasset and Lewiston, have fizzled out or been voted down after local residents voiced concerns about their possible impacts on the environment and electric bills.

McDonald applauded the state for taking the issue of AI data centers seriously, but they are not one-size-fits-all.

“I’m not trying to stop LD 307, although if it went away, that would solve my problem,” McDonald said. “All I’m looking for is to get exempted from this, because we’re not the data center bogeyman that these folks are afraid of.”