A New York City developer wants Albany to rewrite the rulebook for one of the capital city’s biggest empty properties: a 76-acre former convent and school campus in the South End. The pitch is to turn it into a tech campus anchored by a large data center, and it has already triggered neighborhood alarm, tough questions at City Hall and a statehouse clash over a proposed one-year pause on new large data centers.
Developer's push for light-industrial rezoning
As reported by The Real Deal, Michael-Henry Elghanian-Krayem of EKG Group is pushing to rezone the Kenwood Commons site to a light industrial category. At community meetings, he has said that change would clear the way for a data center alongside labs, offices and housing on the 76-acre property that once housed Kenwood Academy and a convent.
What the plan would look like
The development team has circulated a 34-slide presentation laying out a sprawling vision: roughly 500,000 square feet of data center space, research and lab facilities, office buildings and nearly 300 apartments. The initial phase is pegged at about $570 million. According to the Times Union, the full buildout could reach more than $2.8 billion in private investment, depending on how the project is phased and which tenants ultimately sign on.
Power and water questions
On the grid side, the proposal appears in the NYISO interconnection queue as the “Kenwood Tech Center,” with a potential request of roughly 180 megawatts of capacity, according to the NYISO listing on Interconnection.fyi. That level of power, enough for a small city, has rattled nearby residents. Developers have told community meetings that the facility would operate as an “edge” data center with far lower actual power and water use, according to The Real Deal.
Local pushback and the municipal path
Neighbors have organized rallies and pressed city officials to consider other uses for the site, including affordable housing. Members of the Common Council and the Planning Board have publicly acknowledged the level of concern. June 1 Common Council caucus minutes show councilors debating how a rezoning might proceed and what approvals would be needed, while local coverage has documented protests outside Planning Department meetings. Meeting records are available through the City of Albany minutes, with additional reporting from WAMC.
Legal and policy stakes
At the state level, lawmakers have already moved. The Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act, a one-year moratorium on new large data center permits that also adds mandatory environmental reviews and new utility rate classes, and sent it to Gov. Kathy Hochul, according to Sen. Kristen Gonzalez's office. Legal and industry commentators say the bill would bring public hearings, revamped electricity and water rate structures and new labor and host-community requirements that could significantly reshape projects during the pause; one such analysis comes from Mintz.
What happens next
Elghanian-Krayem’s team has told local media it could file formal rezoning and site-plan applications within weeks. City staff, however, have emphasized that multiple public hearings and changes to local ordinances would still be required before anything can get built. With the statewide moratorium bill sitting on the governor’s desk and key grid and water studies not yet complete, the Kenwood Commons plan faces a complicated, likely multi-year review before any shovels hit the ground. The developer’s projected timeline is detailed in the Times Union.
