Amazon Kline Township: Nine-Building Pennsylvania Data Center Contractor Watch

Amazon Data Services is advancing a nine-building AI and cloud data-center campus on Lofty Road in Kline Township, Schuylkill County, near McAdoo, Pennsylvania. The current Amazon project page describes a 380-acre industrial-zoned property, a completed 2025 acquisition, and a project in pre-construction and permitting. Current local plan reporting puts the program at roughly 2.1 million to 2.2 million square feet.

This is a live preconstruction pursuit rather than a completed contractor map. Amazon has named the owner and applicant. Pennsylvania has placed the development in its Fast Track program. Local hearings have exposed the building count, support structures, road work, water planning, and utility involvement. The general contractor, design team, electrical contractor, fiber and structured-cabling teams, security and fire-alarm integrators, controls vendors, DAS provider, grounding package, and independent commissioning authority remain undisclosed.

Project fact	Current detail	Reporting boundary
Site	380 acres	Amazon current figure
Building plan	Nine data centers	June 2026 plan reporting
Building size	About 226,000 sq. ft. each	Approximately 2.1-2.2M total
Current stage	Pre-construction	Permitting and local review
First building	Anticipated in 2028	Construction start remains TBD
Fast Track	In progress	Accepted May 22, 2025
Power	PPL involved in hearings	Project MW undisclosed

The Pennsylvania Fast Track project record identifies Amazon Data Services as sponsor and describes a secure campus with multiple buildings across more than 300 acres. The indexed record lists the project as in progress and gives Amazon a project-coordination contact. The route currently depends on JavaScript and may fall back to the broader Fast Track index in some browsers, so contractors should confirm permit documents and dates against the live state record.

Amazon's site still lists construction start, commissioning, and operations as TBD. It also lists an August 18, 2026 Planning Commission meeting. The reviewed public sources had not posted an outcome by the morning of August 19. That keeps the project in planned and preconstruction status. A hearing date does not establish an approval, award, mobilization, or notice to proceed.

The current plan: nine buildings plus campus infrastructure

Times News reporting from the local review process describes nine data-center buildings at roughly 226,000 square feet each. The program also includes an administration building, water building, security building, six utility rooms, parking, utilities, and stormwater management. The data-center buildings would be approximately two stories and under 80 feet tall. Amazon's team anticipated the first building in 2028.

Earlier January reporting described as many as ten buildings and 2.5 million square feet. The June hearing record reflects the more current nine-building layout at approximately 2.1 million to 2.2 million square feet. Final drawings, phasing plans, and permit sets should settle the gross area, exact building count, and whether utility or support structures are included in published totals.

The site carries a substantial industrial-development history. Amazon acquired the property in 2025 after a warehouse program exceeding 3 million square feet had already been planned for the land. Deed reporting placed the acquisition near $178.6 million. That is a land transaction, while Kline-specific construction capex remains undisclosed. Amazon's separate commitment to invest at least $20 billion in Pennsylvania covers multiple campuses and statewide programs.

Road scope is already visible. Amazon says Lofty Road will be realigned and signalized near Route 309, following elements of the prior warehouse plan. That work will affect campus entrances, traffic control, underground utilities, perimeter security, duct-bank crossings, handholes, site fiber, and construction sequencing. Contractors should watch final land-development drawings for entrance geometry, utility corridors, guard facilities, and phase boundaries.

Named organizations and open delivery roles

Organization	Source-backed role	Current pursuit signal
Amazon Data Services	Owner / developer / applicant	Project and supplier channels
Kline Township	Local land-use review	Hearings and approvals
PA OTO	Fast Track coordinator	Permit milestones
Schuylkill County	County plan review	Plan comments and agendas
PPL Electric	Utility participant	Large-load infrastructure
Luzerne County CC	Workforce partner	Training and talent pipeline

Amazon Data Services is the source-backed owner, developer, sponsor, and applicant. Kline Township and the Schuylkill County Planning Commission are part of the land-development review. The Pennsylvania Office of Transformation and Opportunity coordinates the Fast Track record. PPL Electric participated in the June public meetings, and the Amazon project page features Luzerne County Community College in the regional workforce story.

Local hearing coverage records Amazon development representatives, the township planning commission, the township engineer and zoning officer, the municipal authority engineer, the McAdoo fire chief, and PPL testimony. Those roles give contractors a practical map of the authorities shaping water, roads, power, fire access, sound, buffers, and plan conditions.

The reviewed records publish no Kline-specific general contractor, EPCM, construction manager, architect, civil engineer, MEP engineer, electrical contractor, equipment vendor, carrier, fiber or OSP contractor, structured-cabling contractor, security integrator, fire-alarm contractor, controls integrator, DAS provider, grounding contractor, or independent commissioning authority. Company names should enter a pursuit list only when a plan, permit, award, job posting, contractor portfolio, bid room, lien record, or owner announcement ties the firm to Kline.

Power, water, roads, and the packages around them

Project-specific power remains one of the largest open fields. The local hearing record places PPL at the table, and Amazon representatives said the company would fund PPL system upgrades. The sources reviewed for this report do not disclose requested MW, delivered capacity, critical IT load, service voltage, interconnection point, substation scope, transmission route, backup generation, energization sequence, or a signed service agreement.

PPL's data-center resource outlines its regional large-load framework. A separate June 2026 PPL rate update says the new large-load class uses binding financial and usage commitments, including a minimum ten-year requirement for large users such as data centers. Those are systemwide rules. A Kline-specific capacity agreement, infrastructure budget, and delivery schedule have not surfaced.

Utility development can create communications and controls work well before a data hall reaches commissioning. Watch for substation protection and controls, SCADA, utility fiber, teleprotection, metering, control-house networking, physical security, grounding, relay testing, time synchronization, temporary service, and phased energization. Plan sheets and PPL filings can also expose road crossings, duct banks, equipment yards, fence lines, and the interfaces between utility and campus responsibility.

Water testimony adds another design signal. Local reporting says the facility could draw up to 15,000 gallons per day for potable use and up to 100,000 gallons per day for cooling. Amazon says evaporative cooling would operate during a small portion of the year and its current project page estimates water-based cooling for less than 2% of annual hours. Annual consumption, final treatment design, monitoring requirements, and municipal upgrades remain open. Controls opportunities can include meters, instrumentation, leak detection, alarms, BAS integration, network segmentation, trend logging, and functional testing.

Where low voltage shows up

Low-voltage lane	Project signal	Preparation focus
Fiber / OSP	Nine-building campus	Diverse routes and testing
Structured cabling	Phased data halls	Pathways, labels, QA
Security	Secure campus and gatehouse	Perimeter, access, CCTV
Fire / life safety	Large mission-critical program	Interfaces and acceptance
Controls / OT	Power and cooling plant	BMS, EPMS, DCIM
DAS / radio	Large hardened buildings	Coverage and AHJ criteria
Grounding	Dense electrical systems	Bonding and test records
Commissioning	Multi-year phasing	IST and clean turnover

Campus fiber starts at the property edge. A 380-acre program can require separated carrier entrances, diverse underground paths, long duct-bank runs, handholes and vaults, high-count backbone fiber, building entrance facilities, splicing, optical-loss and OTDR testing, restoration, as-builts, and close coordination with roads, fences, water, stormwater, and electrical distribution. Current records identify no carrier, route, meet-me-room plan, or fiber contractor.

Inside each building, likely scope includes telecom-room and data-hall pathways, tray and ladder rack, high-density fiber, support copper, equipment connectivity, labeling, test records, spare-capacity management, and electronic turnover. The final division among shell, owner-furnished, Amazon network, and specialty-contractor packages will come from procurement documents and project standards. Repeated building designs can reward firms that deliver consistent testing and documentation across phases.

The dedicated security building points to a significant physical-security program. Watch for perimeter detection, gates, vehicle processing, visitor management, access control, CCTV, video management, intercom, secure-area monitoring, emergency coordination, and expansion capacity. Fire and life-safety work can touch initiating devices, suppression interfaces, door release, HVAC shutdown, generator and battery monitoring, supervising-station paths, emergency communications, special inspections, and cause-and-effect testing.

Controls and operational technology will connect cooling, electrical distribution, generators, switchgear, meters, leak detection, environmental monitoring, and alarms. Platform selections for BMS, EPMS, DCIM, security, fire alarm, and network monitoring remain open. The commissioning path will require disciplined point verification, trend review, alarm testing, integrated systems testing, issue closure, redlines, final test files, and usable digital turnover.

Jobs, trades, and supplier readiness

At the June hearing, an Amazon representative projected 400 to 500 full-time jobs for the completed Kline campus. A construction peak, phase-by-phase craft forecast, and hiring calendar remain undisclosed. Amazon's statewide Pennsylvania announcement covers at least $20 billion, 1,250 direct high-skilled jobs, and thousands of construction and supply-chain positions across multiple communities. Contractors should keep the statewide figures separate from the Kline job and cost ledger.

The statewide workforce program still offers practical preparation signals. Amazon describes data-center operations and fiber-optic technician programs, fusion-splicing workshops, contractor and vendor training, and a paid information-infrastructure pre-apprenticeship. The Kline project page also highlights regional education partnerships. Project-specific openings should surface through Amazon's data-center careers channel, contractors, local schools, unions, and workforce organizations.

Prospective firms can prepare now: register through Amazon Supplier Central; organize safety and EMR records; confirm insurance and bonding capacity; document mission-critical references; build a realistic workforce plan; preserve manufacturer certifications; keep calibrated fiber and copper test equipment; show QA/QC, labeling, commissioning, and electronic-closeout examples; and prepare for strict site-access and cybersecurity controls.

Technicians can strengthen readiness through BICSI optical-fiber training, BICSI copper training, FOA workforce resources, and OSHA outreach training. The field advantage comes from pairing installation skill with clean documentation, fiber hygiene, test discipline, redlines, punch-list closure, and commissioning support.

What contractors should watch next

The highest-value near-term records are the August 18 Planning Commission outcome, revised land-development plans, township and county conditions, Pennsylvania Fast Track milestones, PA DEP stormwater and environmental permits, road approvals, municipal water agreements, building and generator permits, fire-code submissions, and PPL interconnection or large-load infrastructure filings. These documents can expose dates, design firms, package boundaries, utility corridors, equipment, and bid timing.

Company monitoring should cover Amazon project updates, supplier events, infrastructure jobs, contractor plan rooms, trade-partner outreach, equipment announcements, permit contacts, lien notices, and commissioning openings. The pursuit map becomes actionable when source evidence names the GC or construction manager, design team, electrical contractor, carriers, fiber and structured-cabling teams, security and fire-alarm integrators, controls vendors, DAS provider, grounding package, or commissioning authority.

Kline Township now has a source-backed owner, a current nine-building campus plan, a Fast Track record, active local review, utility participation, road and water scope, and a 2028 first-building target. LVN Signal will follow the project from permitting through team formation, procurement, construction, energization, integrated testing, and phased turnover.