Aligned Data Centers announced the groundbreaking for Project Phoenix on September 10, 2026, a roughly 2-million-square-foot hyperscale campus at the former Bruce Mansfield coal power plant site in Shippingport, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. The project was first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and has been covered by SUEDatacenters, Aligned's own groundbreaking press release, Marcellus Drilling News, DataCenterAlly, and Is a Data Center Coming.
What was approved and is now under construction
Shippingport Borough adopted its data center ordinance in March 2025. The Borough Council approved Aligned's conditional-use request in late January/February 2026. Project Phoenix is now permitted and under construction, with an expected online date around 2029.
| Detail | Filed figure |
|---|---|
| Campus address | 1312 Church Street, Shippingport Industrial Park |
| Total site area | 543-660 acres |
| Data center buildings | 3 |
| Building sizes | ~672,924 / ~638,000 / ~638,000 sq ft |
| Warehouse/office building | ~147,000 sq ft |
| Total campus footprint | ~2 million sq ft |
| Total power capacity | 2 GW |
| Onsite power pad | ~70 acres (natural gas generation) |
| Reported investment | ~$10 billion |
| Construction jobs | ~3,000 |
| Full-time operations roles | ~640 |
| Expected online date | ~2029 |
Who Aligned Data Centers is
Aligned Data Centers is a hyperscale and colocation operator known for high-density, AI-oriented infrastructure. Investors in Aligned reportedly include Nvidia, Microsoft, BlackRock, and xAI, though no specific end-tenant for Project Phoenix has been disclosed in public records as of the September 2026 groundbreaking. Holder Construction and Kokosing Industrial are serving as general contractors on the campus.
Why Shippingport, and why now
- •The power infrastructure was already there. The Bruce Mansfield site sits within a redeveloping natural gas energy campus. Siting a 2GW campus with dedicated onsite generation on a former coal plant footprint shortens the timeline to energization compared with a greenfield industrial site.
- •Grid independence is the point. Aligned is not drawing from the PJM regional grid. Instead, Project Phoenix will rely on onsite natural-gas-based generation, including solid oxide fuel cells or gas-turbine generation, insulating the campus from interconnection queues that are blocking grid-tied projects across PJM territory.
- •AI demand is compressing project timelines. Investors tied to AI infrastructure are moving capital to sites where 2GW-scale power can be secured outside the grid queue. Beaver County's industrial land bank and existing gas infrastructure made it a viable candidate when primary markets such as Northern Virginia face power constraints.
- •Local government moved quickly. Shippingport Borough passed its data center ordinance and worked through conditional-use approvals within roughly a year, a faster municipal process than many competing jurisdictions.
When a hyperscale developer bypasses the grid entirely with onsite generation, the site selection calculus shifts from "where is spare transmission capacity" to "where is industrial land, gas supply, and a cooperative municipality."
What the onsite power model means for the campus
A 70-acre natural gas generation pad is not a backup generator yard. It is a utility-scale power plant co-located with the data center, and it changes what the campus looks like to operate. The facility will require continuous management of gas supply agreements, combustion or fuel-cell systems, emissions compliance, thermal management, and fuel-cell or turbine maintenance cycles alongside conventional data center critical systems. This is mission-critical infrastructure that sits at the intersection of power plant operations and data center operations, a combination most traditional data center operators have not staffed before.
What it means for the region's labor market
Project Phoenix is one of the largest single construction projects in Beaver County's recent history, and its labor demands will arrive in waves.
The construction phase, with roughly 3,000 jobs, will draw heavily from the Ohio River corridor's organized building trades. Electrical, mechanical, civil, and industrial construction craft workers in this region carry experience from steel, petrochemical, and power-generation projects, and that background is directly applicable to data center MEP construction at this scale. The single most important non-obvious staffing insight for this site: workers who built or maintained the Bruce Mansfield plant, or who currently work at the nearby Shell ethane cracker or other Ohio River energy facilities, already understand large-scale energy systems at the level Project Phoenix demands. That transferable experience makes the local candidate pool for commissioning and operations roles deeper than it first appears.
The roughly 640 full-time operations roles that follow groundbreaking will include critical facilities technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, controls specialists, and power plant operations staff. Nationally, critical facilities technicians in hyperscale environments typically earn in the $70,000-$110,000 range depending on shift structure and certification level, with lead and supervisory roles running higher. The Pittsburgh metro's cost of living means those figures are competitive locally even at the lower end of national ranges. Roles requiring dual competency in power plant operations and data center systems will command a premium and will be the hardest to fill from local supply alone.
For a detailed breakdown of roles, pay bands, and where to find qualified candidates in Beaver County and the Pittsburgh metro, see our guide to hiring data center talent in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Sources: the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which first reported the groundbreaking, and trade and project-tracking coverage from SUEDatacenters, Aligned's groundbreaking press release via Yahoo Finance, Marcellus Drilling News, DataCenterAlly, and Is a Data Center Coming.
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