Data centers are coming for rural America
TL;DR
At its peak, the Androscoggin paper mill in Jay, Maine, a rural town about 67 miles northwest of Portland, employed about 1,500 people - until a pulp digester exploded in 2020, forcing the mill to close permanently. In 2023, the 1.4 million-square-foot facility was purchased through a joint venture by JGT2 Redevelopment and a number of other holding and capital companies. The project is led by developer Tony McDonald.
Nauti's Take
Nauti sees real opportunity here: shuttered industrial sites with existing power hookups are ideal for data centers, and the deals bring capital and tax revenue back to struggling rural regions. The catch: promised jobs are usually a fraction of what was lost, and the power appetite of AI compute clusters can strain local grids.
Interesting for investors and local government, but residents have every right to ask who actually benefits in the end.
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