New York’s data center moratorium.

New York’s data center moratorium.

Hello again! This is Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, back from paternity leave, and I hope you built up an appetite for my writing over the last three weeks because you’re about to hear a lot more from me. Canadian wildfires, tropical storms over the Gulf, and budding tech issues are lining up a bunch of topics that are squarely in my wheelhouse. Today, we’re covering New York’s data center moratorium. In April, I wrote the argument in favor of mo…

New York Froze $10 Billion of Data Centers. Office Landlords Just Lost Their Favorite Excuse.

Reading Time: 3 minutes HqO Blog • Real Estate Experience Trends New York Froze $10 Billion of Data Centers. Office Landlords Just Lost Their Favorite Excuse.   Greg Gomer    Jul 24, 2026   3 min. read   On Tuesday, Governor Hochul signed the nation's first statewide moratorium on hyperscale data centers. Environmental permits for anything 50 megawatts and up ar…

Should we be data center YIMBYs?

Photo by Geoffrey Moffett on Unsplash Monterey Park is not often called the New York of California, but the city resembles New York—the state, that is—in one big way: Both have passed moratoria on data center development. When Monterey Park passed its ban in 2025, it was the first municipality in California to do so. Nationwide, however, hundreds of localities have passed bans or moratoria on data centers. New York secured another first by becom…

Data Centers - More, or Moratorium?

A Trip Through the Fields of Hillsboro In late June, Claire Block and I did a self-guided auto tour of some of the data centers in Hillsboro. Here’s what we saw: Summer in Oregon is a time of wildflowers in abundance, and crops growing toward harvest. The fields of Hillsboro, mostly flat, sometimes rolling toward woodlots of tall Douglas Fir, show their fertility in soft and vivid colors. Among the fields, large buildings, finished or under cons…