Every Household in This Rural Town Receives $10k If a Data Center Gets Built

| Photography by Joe Lamberti for WSJ

Sept. 27, 2026 7:00 pm ET

HAZLE TOWNSHIP, PA.—The letters started arriving in June, from a big developer who said he would give $10,000 to every family in town. They could spend it on anything. “Really whatever you want,” the developer wrote.

To get the money, the township just needed to let NorthPoint Development build its data center, the first of 15 buildings the firm planned on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills. Then, $10,000 checks would go out to each of the 4,500 households there. It would be a $45 million payout, the developer wrote.

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Will Parker writes about commercial real estate, construction and data centers for The Wall Street Journal. He was previously a reporter and special projects editor at the Real Deal, where he focused on the intersection of New York City real estate and politics.