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Data Center Watch Report · ZIP 14215

Buffalo, NY (East Side)

Erie County

OperatingZIP 67.5% Blackpop 42,813

Operating (crypto-mining data center, pivoting toward AI) — DigiPower X / Digihost "New York 1," 1001 East Delavan Ave.

Researched: 2026-08-02 · Lead source: Brockovich AI Data Center community map (1 resident report, 2026-06-02) · ZIP demographics: 67.5% Black, pop 42,813 (Census ACS 2023) · County: Erie County (~14% Black countywide) Status: Operating (crypto-mining data center, pivoting toward AI) — DigiPower X / Digihost "New York 1," 1001 East Delavan Ave.

This report is research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice.

0. Snapshot

ZIP 14215 is Buffalo's East Side — the historically redlined, majority-Black core of the city. The data-center pin here is not a new proposal; it is an operating facility: the crypto-mining plant of DigiPower X Inc. (formerly Digihost Technology) at 1001 East Delavan Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14215 — also the company's headquarters. It occupies ~60,000–70,000 sq ft of the former American Axle / Chevrolet axle plant and has mined Bitcoin there since 2021. The company is now pivoting from Bitcoin mining to AI data centers company-wide.

Important distinction: DigiPower X's loudest controversies — a noise lawsuit, an expired air permit, greenhouse-gas complaints, and a state "disadvantaged communities" challenge — attach to the company's other Western New York site, the Fortistar gas power plant at 1070 Erie Ave in North Tonawanda (Niagara County, a whiter community). The East Delavan site in Black Buffalo draws grid power and has generated comparatively little documented public scrutiny — that relative silence, in a 67.5%-Black ZIP, is itself worth noting.

1. The Facility & Where It Sits

  • Operator: DigiPower X Inc. (formerly Digihost Technology Inc.; ticker DGXX). HQ and "New York 1" data center at 1001 East Delavan Ave, Buffalo, 14215.
  • Building: ~60,000–70,000 sq ft inside the former American Axle/Chevy axle plant, under a long-term (reported 99-year) lease. (SEC filings)
  • Power on site: an 18.7 MVA outdoor substation, with an option to expand to ~42 MVA; the site's mining capacity has been described up to ~42 MW, with ~19 MW cited as an operating figure. (SEC filings; datacentermap)
  • Use: historically Bitcoin mining; company-wide pivot to AI/data-center hosting announced. Whether the Delavan site itself has been reconfigured to AI is not clearly documented as of 2026-08-02.
  • Where it sits: East Delavan Avenue, deep in the East Side residential grid — blocks of homes, churches and small commercial strips, near the University and Masten districts. The 2022 racist mass shooting at the Tops on Jefferson Ave (14208) was in this same East Side community.
  • Status: Operating. DigiPower X's separate North Tonawanda (Fortistar) site is ~60 MW co-located with a gas plant and is where the AI-conversion application and moratorium fight are playing out — not Delavan.

2. Public Hearings & Notices

  • 1001 E Delavan (Buffalo): No active City of Buffalo rezoning/permit hearing on this site found as of 2026-08-02. The plant predates the current data-center scrutiny and operates in an industrial building. Not found as of 2026-08-02 for current Buffalo hearings specific to Delavan.
  • North Tonawanda (same company, Niagara County): Common Council banned new crypto mining for two years (unanimous, 2024) and later extended a crypto/data-center moratorium another year, halting DigiPower X's AI-conversion plan there. (govtech, Buffalo News, DCD)
  • Statewide: NY Legislature passed the Responsible Data Center Development Act (Senate 44–16, Assembly 102–39) on June 4, 2026 — a one-year moratorium on new large data centers with ≥20 MW peak demand. Governor Hochul separately signed an Executive Order (effective July 14, 2026) pausing state environmental permits for new hyperscale centers ≥50 MW for up to a year; legal analysts expected she may veto the 20 MW legislative bill in favor of her 50 MW order. The resident report (June 2, 2026) lands right at this moment. (NY Senate, DLA Piper, Governor's office, CNBC)

3. Power

  • Serving utility: National Grid (Niagara Mohawk) serves the City of Buffalo.
  • The Delavan site's dedicated 18.7 MVA substation ties it to the grid; DigiPower X has publicly claimed ~90% zero-carbon and >50% renewable power for its operations, consistent with Western NY's access to NYPA (New York Power Authority) hydropower from Niagara. (SEC filings) Independent verification of the Delavan site's exact supply mix: Not found as of 2026-08-02.
  • Statewide, NY's moratorium and the PSC are actively reworking how large loads are treated and who pays — the backdrop to any expansion.

4. Water & Drought

  • Crypto/AI hosting at Delavan uses forced-air/immersion cooling typical of these plants; a site-specific water-withdrawal permit was not found as of 2026-08-02. Western NY is not a drought-stressed region (Great Lakes basin) — check current Erie County status at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.
  • The more acute environmental complaint against this company (jet-engine-like noise and greenhouse gas) is documented at the North Tonawanda site, not Delavan. (Buffalo News; DCD, "Digi Power X sued over noise")

5. Population & Who Lives Here

  • ZIP 14215: 67.5% Black, pop 42,813 (ACS 2023); majority-renter; high poverty; part of Buffalo's East Side food-desert belt where Black residents are far less likely to have a nearby grocery. (censusreporter, Point2Homes, PPG Buffalo)
  • The East Side is a Great Migration Black community, heavily redlined, and — per Investigative Post and PPG Buffalo — conditions have worsened for Black Buffalo over the past decade. A power-hungry industrial data operation in this ZIP sits squarely in an environmental-justice context.

6. Money — Abatements, Incentives, Jobs

  • Public abatement/PILOT terms specific to the 1001 E Delavan operation were not found as of 2026-08-02. (Erie County IDA/ECIDA and City of Buffalo would hold any incentive records — see §8.)
  • Crypto mines are widely criticized for few permanent jobs relative to power drawn; DigiPower X's public jobs claims have centered on its North Tonawanda plans. Verify any Delavan jobs/incentive figures directly with ECIDA.

7. Community Reaction & News Coverage

  • Local/regional outlets: The Buffalo News, Investigative Post (nonprofit watchdog, strong on East Side equity and Title V air-permit failures), WGRZ, WKBW, Spectrum News Buffalo; statewide: Inside Climate News, Earthjustice.
  • Organized groups: Clean Air Coalition of Western New York (Title V / air-permit campaign), and North Tonawanda resident coalitions — their fight is largely at the Fortistar site, but they are the region's data-center/crypto watchdogs.
  • Documented finding: 87% of Title V air permits in Erie and Niagara counties were expired, and DEC was faulted for sitting on the Digihost/Fortistar permit — a systemic vigilance gap East Side residents should know about. (Buffalo News editorial; CACWNY)

8. Find Out For Yourself

City of Buffalo — City Hall, 65 Niagara Square, Buffalo, NY 14202

  • Common Council — Masten District (covers 14215): Council Member Zeneta B. Everhart (also Council President Pro Tem), 65 Niagara Sq., Rm. 1405 — 716-851-5145. Email via the official page: buffalony.gov/1679/Zeneta-B-Everhart.
  • Common Council — University District (also touches 14215): Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt — contact via buffalony.gov Common Council Members page.
  • City Clerk / Common Council: buffalony.gov/387/Common-Council-Members (agendas, meeting schedule).
  • Air permits / environment: NYSDEC Region 9 (Buffalo) — air permits and the Title V program; dec.ny.gov.
  • Power/rates: New York PSC — dps.ny.gov (large-load and utility dockets); National Grid upstate NY public affairs; NYPA (hydropower allocations).
  • Watchdogs/tips: Investigative Post (investigativepost.org), Clean Air Coalition of WNY (cacwny.org).

Questions worth asking:

  1. What is the current, permitted power draw at 1001 E Delavan, and has DigiPower X applied to convert it from Bitcoin to AI hosting?
  2. Does the Delavan site hold a current NYSDEC air permit, and is it in the Title V program?
  3. What is the site's actual electricity source — NYPA hydro allocation, National Grid market power, or on-site generation?
  4. How many permanent Buffalo jobs does the facility employ, and did it receive any ECIDA/City tax incentives or PILOT?
  5. Does the statewide moratorium (EO ≥50 MW / bill ≥20 MW) reach an expansion of this existing site?
  6. Are there noise or vibration complaints logged with the City for the East Delavan location, as there are in North Tonawanda?

9. If You're Thinking About Moving Here

This is an already-operating industrial data/crypto plant embedded in a dense, majority-Black residential neighborhood — not a hypothetical. The good news for now: New York just became the first state to hit pause on new large data centers, and the company's most disruptive documented harms (round-the-clock noise, air-permit lapses) are recorded at its North Tonawanda plant, not here. The open questions are exactly the ones no public hearing has clearly answered for the East Delavan site: its real power draw, its air-permit status, and whether it is quietly becoming an AI facility. In a ZIP already carrying heavy poverty, food-desert conditions, and a long redlining legacy, "we don't have public answers" is the finding. Track the Buffalo Common Council (Masten District) and NYSDEC Region 9 before drawing conclusions either way.

10. Sources

Lead source: resident reports on the Brockovich AI Data Center community map, then independently verified against public records. Research, not legal, financial, real-estate, or investment advice. Some resident-reported pins remain uncorroborated and are labeled as such above.