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Speculative

Aliquippa Steel Mill Conversion (Reported Blackstone Plan)

City of Aliquippa, Beaver County

Data Center Knowledge reported in October 2025 that a roughly $25 billion effort backed by Blackstone would turn an abandoned steel mill in Aliquippa, Beaver County, into a high-density data center complex, but no developer, site plan or municipal filing has surfaced since.

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At a glance

The project by the numbers

StatusSpeculative / Exploratory
First announced2025-07-15
Target onlineabout 2031+

A reported $25 billion Aliquippa steel mill conversion has no developer or application on record

The number that mattersThe $25 billion figure comes from a single October 2025 trade report, while the Wall Street Journal in July 2025 described a $2 billion plan to turn a long-closed Aliquippa mill site into a power plant and data centers.
Developer
Not confirmed. Data Center Knowledge attributed the project to Blackstone, which formed a joint venture with PPL Corporation in July 2025 to build gas-fired power plants for data centers; PPL's announcement didn't name Aliquippa or any other site. The developer named in news coverage as marketing Aliquippa's former J&L Steel land to data center builders is Fezzik Energy, whose partners include land developer Chuck Betters, attorney Jonathan Kamin and Joanna Doven, and which is tracked in a separate entry.
Tenant
No end user has been named, and no developer has publicly confirmed the project.
Current stage
No application has been filed with the City of Aliquippa. City council and work session agendas posted from July 2025 through October 2026 include no data center items, and Beaver County Commissioner Jack Manning said in April 2026 that the Bruce Mansfield site in Shippingport is the only data center project he knows of that's active, with no information on any others going through permitting.
Decision body
City of Aliquippa City Council and its Planning Board would handle zoning and land development, with state permits from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Beaver County's solicitor has said data center approvals happen at the municipal level.
Top issues
Whether the project exists in the form reported, what remains in the ground at the former steel mill, how little residents are told early on, and the gas power plants that would likely be built to serve a campus of this size.
Key opponents
No organized opposition group has been reported.
Key supporters
Aliquippa Mayor Dwan Walker, who is also Midland's borough manager, has said he's eager to see old industrial sites redeveloped, possibly as data centers.

How we got here

On July 12, 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported a $2 billion plan to turn a long-closed mill site in Aliquippa into a power plant and data centers for artificial intelligence, and Fezzik Energy later reposted the story on its website. On July 15, 2025, at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, PPL and Blackstone Infrastructure announced a joint venture, 51 percent owned by PPL and 49 percent by Blackstone Infrastructure, to build gas-fired plants for data centers, without naming sites. On Oct. 16, 2025, Data Center Knowledge described a $25 billion Blackstone-backed effort to convert an abandoned Aliquippa steel mill into a data center complex. In February 2026 the Post-Gazette reported that Fezzik Energy was working to attract data centers to former J&L Steel sites in Aliquippa and Midland, and quoted Mayor Dwan Walker saying, "In the beginning, you're cloak and dagger." In March 2026 an Inside Climate News story published by Public Source listed an "Aliquippa Data Center Campus" on a former steel mill site, citing a citizen-run tracker. In April 2026 Commissioner Jack Manning said he had no information on any proposed data centers in permitting besides Shippingport. As of October 2026, no acreage, megawatt figure, tenant or municipal filing has been made public.

Timeline

How it has unfolded

News

Coverage of this project

Sources

Know your rights

In Pennsylvania, the local zoning ordinance sets the route. A conditional use is decided by the elected governing body (supervisors, commissioners or council). A special exception or variance, and an appeal of a zoning officer’s decision, go to the Zoning Hearing Board. Each is a public hearing on a record: affected neighbors can ask for party status, cross-examine witnesses, and appeal. Municipalities can also adopt data center ordinances with enforceable standards.

Know your rights →

Take action

Organized community opposition is the single most effective check on these projects in Pennsylvania. Show up to hearings, submit comment when it is taken, support legal and expert-witness costs, and press your municipality for a real ordinance. Pennsylvania municipalities cannot simply freeze applications, but a curative amendment under the Planning Code gives them a defined window to fix a defective ordinance.

How communities push back →