Niagara County, New York

County ranked by announced AI data-center load

360 MW Announced AI load

Campuses

Lead operator

TeraWulf

Resi rate Δ (National Grid)

n/a

Home price Δ (3y)

+23.4%

Property tax Δ (3y)

+6.5%

Population (2024 ACS)

211K

Median HH income (2024 ACS)

$69,633

Key takeaways

Niagara County has 211,341 residents and a median household income of $67,809. Home prices rose 23.4% over three years, the steepest 3-year gain in any batch-3 county, against a median home value of just $177,400.Source: Census ACS 2023 B01003, B19013, B25077 (Niagara County, NY) + data/cache/realestate_yoy.csv
Lake Mariner sits on the former Somerset coal plant site in Barker, leased to TeraWulf by an entity 99.9% owned by CEO Paul Prager. The 360 MW campus signed AI hosting agreements with Fluidstack that route capacity to Google, the largest hyperscaler tied to Niagara hydropower.Source: sources[0] (Wikipedia: TeraWulf) + data/sites/data_centers.csv
Niagara Mohawk's residential rate rose only 4.5% from 2021 to 2023, well below the New York investor-owned average. New York State Electric and Gas in the same region rose 27.9%, so the bill outcome for Lake Mariner's neighbors depends entirely on which utility their meter is on.Source: data/cache/utility_rate_yoy.csv (Niagara Mohawk Power Corp and New York State Elec and Gas, NY)
Anthropic's New York campus in the Town of Niagara is a Fluidstack custom build with no announced MW disclosure. The town itself has 7,903 residents, so the project will likely be the second-largest private employer in the municipality once energized.Source: data/sites/data_centers.csv (Anthropic New York) + sources[1] (Wikipedia: Niagara town NY)

70.9% of Niagara County housing is owner-occupied at a median home value cited elsewhere of $177,400, so the speculative spillover from Lake Mariner lands largely on existing homeowners rather than a thin rental market.Source: Census ACS 2023 B25003 (Niagara County, NY)
Manufacturing still employs 13.9% of Niagara's workforce, a holdover from the chemical and metals economy along the Niagara River that historically rode the same hydro that now powers TeraWulf.Source: Census ACS 2023 C24050 (Niagara County, NY)
Niagara's veteran share is 7.7% of adults 18 and over (13,066 veterans), an underused labor pool the Lake Mariner site could tap for plant-operator roles converted from former Somerset coal staff.Source: Census ACS 2023 B21001 (Niagara County, NY)
Only 88.6% of Niagara households have a wired broadband subscription, behind the national 91% baseline. The same Town of Niagara that hosts the Anthropic build sits in the lower-connectivity bucket for upstate New York.Source: Census ACS 2023 B28002 (Niagara County, NY)