New York tri-state data center permits, Q3 2026: no new data center buildings filed.

Around New York City the quarter's story is local governments deciding whether to allow data centers at all, while Manhattan's carrier hotels replaced plant rather than adding floors.

What the Q3 records show

1. No new data center building, data hall fit-out or power addition was filed in the places we cover. The only Q3 filings at data center buildings were plant replacements in Manhattan, listed below. The one new building in the regional pipeline, DataBank's Orangeburg Phase II, was filed before this quarter and is still in environmental review. New Jersey's state building permit file has no Q3 rows yet, so New Jersey building permits are not yet counted.
2. Five jurisdictions around New York City moved on data center moratoria. Brookhaven's Town Board adopted one unanimously on 13 August, according to its draft minutes. Orangetown adopted a town-wide moratorium on data centers and battery storage on 25 August. Newark's council adopted a resolution supporting a 12-month moratorium on 9 September, while the ordinance itself was returned to the administration. Islip held a public hearing on its moratorium law on 11 August, and Trumbull on a two-year moratorium on 9 September. The records for those two do not show the outcome.
3. DataBank's Orangeburg expansion went into full environmental review, smaller. On 22 July the Orangetown Planning Board issued a positive declaration for DataBank Phase II at 2000 Corporate Drive, which means an environmental impact statement is required. The notice describes a 77,862 square foot data center, down from 146,480, with a 22,571 square foot standby power equipment yard, down from 52,095. The public scoping session was held on 9 September.
4. Manhattan's carrier hotels replaced plant rather than adding floors. On 31 August the city issued a $314,200 permit at 325 Hudson Street for two 30-ton energy recovery chillers. On 13 August it issued a $2,550,000 permit at 32 Avenue of the Americas to replace five fluid coolers. On 16 September a job to replace the fuel oil fill piping at 60 Hudson Street was filed. None of these filings names the tenant it serves.

In New Jersey the state lists pending air permit changes, as of 29 September, for CoreSite NY2/NY3 at 2 Emerson Lane and Equinix at 755 Secaucus Road in Secaucus, CyrusOne at 800 Cottontail Lane in Franklin Township and PNJ1 at 101 Possumtown Road in Piscataway. A pending application has no decision date, so none of the four is in the air permit table. The largest new-source air permit in the New Jersey record since 2024 is CoreWeave's at 2000 Galloping Hill Road in Kenilworth, approved on 23 October 2025.

Sites filing to add data center capacity, by quarter

Several of these sources were added this quarter and read back to 2024, so earlier quarters are shown separately and are not a trend line. The New Jersey state permits carry an issue date but no filing date, so they sit in no quarter.

The records

New Jersey air permits for data centers

A data center needs a state air permit to run its backup generators, so this record often shows work before a building permit does. Each row is one decision by the state, since January 2024.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection air permit activities at facilities the state names as a data center or a data center operator. None fall in Q3 2026. A generator permit rating is backup plant, not the capacity a customer can use, so no rating is shown as megawatts of space. Each link opens the state's own record of the permit activity. Pending applications carry no decision date and are not in this table.

Buildings certified as finished

None of these jurisdictions has recorded a certificate of occupancy at an address that carries a data center permit. A certificate marks a building or tenant space being finished, never capacity being available.

New York's statewide pause

On 14 July 2026 New York issued Executive Order 62. It pauses discretionary state environmental permits for data centers able to draw 50 MW or more, until the state finishes a generic environmental impact statement. Applications the state had already deemed complete are not caught by it. This comes from the order, not from the permit records above, and it is summarised by Davis Wright Tremaine and DLA Piper. The records above cannot show whether it changed what was filed.

The pause is now a campaign issue. Governor Kathy Hochul's reelection campaign is running a statewide TV ad through Election Day that presents the moratorium as a way to keep utility bills down, City & State reported on 23 September. Her Republican opponent, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, called the moratorium "crazy" in July and argues New York has to compete for data centers, according to NY1. This is news coverage, not a permit record.

What it means for a buyer

• Plant replacement is not new capacity. New chillers, coolers and fuel systems in a carrier hotel keep existing floors running. They do not show that space is coming free.
• A permit is not available space. It records that work was filed or issued. Whether any capacity is uncommitted is a question only the operator can answer.
• An air permit comes before generators run. A pending modification in Secaucus or Franklin Township shows an operator changing its backup plant. An environmental review like Orangeburg's comes before any building permit. It does not say how much IT load a customer could sign for.
• Moratoria change what can be built next, not what already runs. The moratoria above stop new data center approvals in those towns for a period. They do not close buildings already operating there.

What to watch next

• The outcomes in Islip and Trumbull. Both held public hearings on data center moratoria this quarter, and neither record yet shows a vote.
• DataBank Orangeburg Phase II's draft environmental impact statement, the next step after the 9 September scoping session.
• Whether Newark brings the moratorium ordinance back after the council's 9 September resolution of support.
• State decisions on the four pending New Jersey air permit changes, and New Jersey's state permit reports for July to September, which towns file in arrears.
• The 3 November governor's election. The statewide pause is a central issue in the race, and the two candidates disagree on whether it should stand.
• Wallingford. Its Ordinance Committee said on 1 September that the town needs to update its ordinance before any data centers are built.

Coverage and cutoff

This report reads the public files that are live around New York City today. It is not a full tri-state report. A place with no file below is missing from this edition, not quiet.

• New York City building filings: all five boroughs, from the Department of Buildings job filings. A filing is included when its description says data center, or when it is at one of eight buildings already known to house data centers and describes the plant a data center runs on: chillers, coolers, fuel oil, generators or electrical equipment. Office, cafe, facade and scaffold work at those buildings is left out, because they are mostly offices.
• New Jersey construction permits: the state's construction permit reports, kept only on tax parcels that hold a known data center. These reports give no description of the work, so a permit here proves work on the parcel, not data center work. The newest permit in the state file was issued on 26 June 2026, so New Jersey building permits have no Q3 rows yet. That is a reporting lag, not a quiet quarter.
• Council, town board and planning records: Newark council legislation, Brookhaven and Islip town board agendas and minutes, Orangetown planning board and local law records, and Trumbull and Wallingford agendas and minutes. These are legislation and review records, not permits, and the date shown is the meeting or posting date.
• State environmental notices: New York's Environmental Notice Bulletin, read for the New York counties around the city.
• New Jersey air permits: decisions by the state Department of Environmental Protection at facilities the state names as a data center or a data center operator.
• Not covered: municipal permit systems in New Jersey towns, and building permits outside New York City and New Jersey's state reports. Also not covered: Westchester, Nassau and Orange County towns, where no data center record since 2024 was found, and Stamford, whose public site refuses automated access.
• Collection cutoff: 29 September 2026.

Sources and revisions

Every row links to the public record it came from: the city's job filing, the state's permit record, the town's agenda, minutes or notice, the state's environmental notice, or the state's air permit record. Brookhaven's 13 August vote is taken from the town's draft minutes and will be re-checked against the approved minutes. Counts are generated from those records. When this edition is finalised its figures are frozen: a later correction is added below with its date and reason, and the original figure stays visible.

Colocation Scout is run by a colocation sourcing consultant. The permit data is public and every row links to its filing. How we publish these reports.

Revisions: none yet. Edition status: provisional.

Cite this report as: Colocation Scout, "New York tri-state data center permits, Q3 2026," colocationscout.com/reports/new-york-tristate-data-center-permits-q3-2026.html