Alcoa Corporation has agreed to sell parts of its former Massena East smelter in upstate New York to an unnamed data center developer for up to $315 million. The buyer was not disclosed, though cryptominer NYDIG has previously been linked to the site, where an affiliate has filed plans for a data center campus.
Aerial view showing data center infrastructure and industrial buildings across the former Alcoa complex in Massena.
The deal is expected to close within six months. Alcoa expects to receive $50 million to $65 million initially, depending on approved data center capacity, with a further $60 million to $250 million possible over the following seven years as capacity expands and comes online. Most proceeds are expected within five years. CEO Bill Oplinger said the agreement advances the company’s asset monetization strategy.
“It gives us some cash up-front, but it will give us cash further over the next five years as that data center first gets built and then gets increased in size. So, it gives us a lot of upside," he said.
Alcoa’s former 1,600-acre Massena East smelter in New York could support up to 635MW of data center capacity, starting with 180MW.
North Country Colocation Services, an NYDIG affiliate, is reportedly developing an 88-acre campus with two buildings totaling 635MW. Alcoa is seeking buyers for ten former US smelter sites, with CEO Bill Oplinger saying two additional deals could progress soon. In Maryland, TPG Real Estate Partners is developing a 2,100-acre, gigawatt-scale data center park on a former Alcoa site.
