ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The 76-acre Kenwood site in South Albany was once a convent and a school. A fire destroyed three buildings in 2023. Now, the developers want a data center on a part of the site, and it has divided South Albany neighbors. NEWS10’s Amber Fisher took on a tour of the property to hear from both sides.
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“We’re opposed to the data center….there’s just too many things that have been dumped in the South End, and not for the better.” said Pat Perry, president of the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association. Mount Hope is next to Kenwood.
The developers said it would be a four-acre data center, not a large AI facility. They also claimed it will use less water than a farm or golf course.
“There’s a distinction between that massive hyper-scaled facility that’s usually much more polluted and unsustainable. And our boutique edge tech center, proposition, which is much smaller, relies less on raw megawatts and power generation, doesn’t push AI,” explained Michael-Henry Elghanian-Krayem, director of EKG Group and Guild Ventures, the owners of the property…