Middlesex County

Moratoriums and bans

1. March 10, 2026 Lowell: Moratorium. The City Council voted 10-0 for a 360-day pause on building, developing or expanding data centers, with a possible 180-day extension; a July 2026 agreement with Markley lets its expansion plans that predate the pause go ahead. (Boston Business Journal (via NBC Boston), March 10, 2026; Yale Law School (YLS Today), March 16, 2026; GBH News, July 29, 2026)
2. May 11, 2026 Everett: Zoning change (proposed). An ordinance for the Docklands district would bar data centers over 20,000 square feet or 5 MW and allow smaller ones only by special permit with non-diesel backup and closed-loop non-potable cooling; the planning board backed it April 6 and a council committee recommended it May 11, 2026. A citywide version was promised. (City of Everett, May 11, 2026; City of Everett, June 8, 2026; The Boston Globe (editorial board), May 26, 2026)
3. Sept. 29, 2026 Wilmington: Zoning bylaw (proposed). A draft bylaw modeled on Mansfield's would ban facilities over 2 MW and allow smaller ones only in industrial districts by special permit; the planning board hearing was set for Sept. 29, 2026. (Hoodline, Sept. 20, 2026)
4. Oct. 2026 Stoneham: Moratorium (proposed). Article 3 on the October 2026 town meeting warrant would pause new data centers until July 1, 2028, or until permanent zoning is adopted; the finance board backed it 9-0. (Stoneham Civic Ledger, Oct. 13, 2026)

Updates, newest first

1. Oct. 24, 2026 Centersquare BOS1 (Waltham) · Csquare's Boston page lists Waltham BOS1 with 38.2 MW of utility power and 50,150 sq ft of raised floor, and says space and power are available. (Csquare (Centersquare), Oct. 24, 2026; Csquare (Centersquare), Oct. 24, 2026)
2. Oct. 24, 2026 Centersquare BOS1 (Waltham) · Data Center Map lists a BOS1-B building at 115 Second Avenue, about a quarter mile from BOS1-A at 580 Winter Street. (Data Center Map, Oct. 24, 2026)
3. Oct. 24, 2026 Centersquare BOS4 (Watertown) · Csquare's Boston page lists Watertown BOS4 with 19.1 MW of utility power and 38,977 sq ft of usable space. (Csquare (Centersquare), Oct. 24, 2026; Csquare (Centersquare), Oct. 24, 2026)
4. Oct. 24, 2026 TierPoint Boston - Marlborough Data Center · TierPoint's spec sheet lists more than 140,000 sq ft in total, over 50,000 sq ft of production space and liquid cooling for dense cabinets. (TierPoint, Oct. 24, 2026; TierPoint, Oct. 24, 2026)
5. Oct. 24, 2026 Equinix BO2 (Billerica) · Equinix's BO2 page gives the Billerica address and about 75,735 square feet of colocation space, with N+1 UPS, 2N+1 generators and at least 30 hours of generator fuel at full load. (Equinix, Oct. 24, 2026)
6. Oct. 24, 2026 Equinix BO2 (Billerica) · Equinix's Boston market page lists BO2 as its only Boston-area site. (Equinix, Oct. 24, 2026)
7. Oct. 24, 2026 CoreSite BO1 (Somerville) · CoreSite's BO1 page lists the Somerville address and more than 273,000 square feet, with N, N+1 or 2N power redundancy. (CoreSite, Oct. 24, 2026)
8. Oct. 24, 2026 CoreSite BO1 (Somerville) · Expedient's Boston location page gives 70 Inner Belt Road, 273,000 total square feet and 10.7 MW of critical IT load. (Expedient, Oct. 24, 2026)
9. Oct. 24, 2026 Evocative BOS1 (Somerville) · Evocative's BOS1 page lists 46,000 square feet (21,600 raised floor), 6 MW of utility power, five 750 kVA UPS systems and three 2 MW generators rated for 48 hours at full load. (Evocative, Oct. 24, 2026)
10. Oct. 24, 2026 365 Data Centers Greater Boston (Marlborough) · 365 Data Centers' Greater Boston page lists the Locke Drive address, 64,000 square feet and colocation, network and cloud services. (365 Data Centers, Oct. 24, 2026)
11. Oct. 2026 Stoneham: Moratorium (proposed) · Article 3 on the October 2026 town meeting warrant would pause new data centers until July 1, 2028, or until permanent zoning is adopted; the finance board backed it 9-0. (Stoneham Civic Ledger, Oct. 13, 2026)
12. Sept. 29, 2026 Wilmington: Zoning bylaw (proposed) · A draft bylaw modeled on Mansfield's would ban facilities over 2 MW and allow smaller ones only in industrial districts by special permit; the planning board hearing was set for Sept. 29, 2026. (Hoodline, Sept. 20, 2026)
13. May 11, 2026 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · A City Council committee recommended the ordinance favorably; it remained pending in June 2026. (City of Everett, May 11, 2026; City of Everett, June 8, 2026)
14. May 11, 2026 Everett: Zoning change (proposed) · An ordinance for the Docklands district would bar data centers over 20,000 square feet or 5 MW and allow smaller ones only by special permit with non-diesel backup and closed-loop non-potable cooling; the planning board backed it April 6 and a council committee recommended it May 11, 2026. A citywide version was promised. (City of Everett, May 11, 2026; City of Everett, June 8, 2026; The Boston Globe (editorial board), May 26, 2026)
15. April 6, 2026 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · Davis told WBUR it had no specific data center plans but was keeping the option open; the Globe reported in May that the site's existing zoning allows a data center. (WBUR, April 6, 2026; The Boston Globe, May 18, 2026)
16. April 6, 2026 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · The planning board unanimously endorsed an ordinance capping data centers in the district at 20,000 square feet or 5 MW, by special permit only. (City of Everett, May 11, 2026; Boston.com, April 8, 2026)
17. April 2026 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · The Davis Companies told the City Council that a 5 MW cap would make a standalone data center unviable, according to a Globe editorial. (The Boston Globe (editorial board), May 26, 2026)
18. March 10, 2026 Lowell: Moratorium · The City Council voted 10-0 for a 360-day pause on building, developing or expanding data centers, with a possible 180-day extension; a July 2026 agreement with Markley lets its expansion plans that predate the pause go ahead. (Boston Business Journal (via NBC Boston), March 10, 2026; Yale Law School (YLS Today), March 16, 2026; GBH News, July 29, 2026)
19. March 2, 2026 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · The Mystic River Watershed Association asked the planning board to prohibit or pause data centers at the site. (Mystic River Watershed Association, March 26, 2026)
20. March 2026 EdgeConneX BOS01 (Billerica) · An updated EdgeConneX data sheet still lists BOS01 at 1.5 MW with a plan for 4.5 MW. (EdgeConneX, March 2026)
21. Sept. 24, 2025 CoreSite BO1 (Somerville) · Expedient described a new cloud data center deployment in Somerville, saying it had served the Boston area for 10 years. (Expedient, Sept. 24, 2025)
22. Sept. 5, 2024 Everett Docklands (former ExxonMobil site) data center option · Everett Landco filed an expanded environmental notification form with MEPA for the Docklands, a mixed-use master plan whose first phase is a 700 MW battery storage facility; the plan as described did not include a data center. (Boston.com, Sept. 5, 2024)
23. Sept. 2024 EdgeConneX BOS01 (Billerica) · EdgeConneX's Boston data sheet places BOS01 at 22 Linnell Circle in Billerica, with 21,400 sq ft of raised floor. (EdgeConneX, Sept. 2024)
24. May 4, 2016 TierPoint Boston - Marlborough Data Center · Data Center Knowledge reported that Lincoln Rackhouse bought the Marlborough building where TierPoint runs its data center. (Data Center Knowledge, May 4, 2016)
25. 2014 Partners HealthCare (Mass General Brigham) Marlborough data center · Leggat McCall's project page lists the work as complete in 2014: a Tier III+ design with a 19,000-square-foot data hall (expandable to 38,000), 1.3 MW of compute (expandable to 5.2 MW) and LEED Silver. (Leggat McCall Properties, 2014)
26. 2013 Partners HealthCare (Mass General Brigham) Marlborough data center · Worcester Business Journal reported Partners bought the 22.5-acre Forest Street parcel for $4.5 million and planned a $49 million, 65,000-square-foot data center employing about 15 people, due in November 2014. (Worcester Business Journal, undated)

Statewide

Sales tax exemption: the Mass Leads Act (H.5100, Chapter 238 of the Acts of 2024, signed Nov. 20, 2024; sections 47 and 214) created a 20-year sales and use tax exemption for certified 'qualified data centers' (G.L. c. 64H, s. 6(zz); c. 23A, s. 70; rules at 400 CMR 9.00) covering equipment, software, electricity and construction, for sites of at least 100,000 square feet, $50 million of investment and 100 jobs. An earlier attempt, a 2022 House amendment aimed at the Westfield project, died when that year's economic development bill stalled. (Massachusetts Legislature, Nov. 20, 2024; Mass.gov (Governor's Office), Nov. 20, 2024; Mass.gov (Executive Office of Economic Development), Oct. 24, 2026; Mass.gov (Executive Office of Economic Development), Oct. 24, 2026; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Jan. 7, 2025; The Reminder, Aug. 11, 2022) On June 25, 2026, the Healey administration stopped taking applications for the data center exemption, about a month after it opened, and issued a 'statement of expectations' asking data centers to bring their own clean energy, not raise other ratepayers' costs, limit water use and diesel backup, and sign community benefits agreements. (Mass.gov (Governor's Office, EEA, EOED), June 25, 2026; Mass.gov (Executive Office of Economic Development), Oct. 24, 2026) Executive Order No. 658 (Sept. 8, 2026) bars state agencies from permitting new or expanded data centers over 25 MW of peak demand unless they conform to the June 2026 framework and present a community benefits agreement that the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity accepts; it bans state nondisclosure agreements with data centers and sets up a Ratepayer Protection Fund, with MassDEP to set an alternative compliance payment by Dec. 31, 2026. It covers data centers built or expanded after it was signed. (Pierce Atwood LLP, Sept. 10, 2026; WBUR (State House News Service), Sept. 8, 2026) Large loads: no approved data center or large-load tariff was found. In D.P.U. 26-DC (Sept. 24, 2026), the DPU ordered Eversource (NSTAR Electric), National Grid and Unitil to file by Oct. 23, 2026, lists of all queued loads over 25 MW and data centers over 1 MW, plus plans to weed out speculative requests and to have data centers bring clean energy for 100 percent of their demand. (Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, Sept. 24, 2026) Energy affordability bill (H.5175 / S.3166, 2025-2026 session): the House version (passed 128-27, Feb. 26, 2026) would require data centers of 20 MW or more to buy at least 80 percent renewable power and make utilities file a data-center tariff for DPU approval; the Senate version (passed 32-8, July 1, 2026) adopted Sen. Vanna Howard's amendment #162, which applies guardrails only to data centers using the tax exemption, and rejected broader amendments, including Sen. John Velis's. The bill has been in conference committee since July 16, 2026, and has not been enacted. (Massachusetts Legislature, July 16, 2026; Metropolitan Area Planning Council, March 5, 2026; InsideLowell, March 2, 2026; Sierra Club Massachusetts, July 7, 2026; Daily Hampshire Gazette (republished by Sen. John Velis), July 7, 2026; Union of Concerned Scientists, Sept. 8, 2026) S.3213 (July 23, 2026) is a Howard amendment to the Senate's economic development bill that would set statewide rules for data centers of 20 MW or more: 100 percent new clean power, phased-out fossil backup, MassDEP water and noise certification, yearly energy and water disclosure starting Dec. 1, 2026, labor and community benefit agreements, and data center tariffs within 90 days, with loss of the tax exemption for any facility that does not comply. What became of it was not found. (Massachusetts Legislature, July 23, 2026) The 2024 climate law (S.2967, signed Nov. 20, 2024) merges permits for clean energy generation of 25 MW or more into one Energy Facilities Siting Board permit and creates the Office of Environmental Justice and Equity. It does not mention data centers, but the 2026 executive order relies on that office's community benefits standards. (Barclay Damon LLP, Nov. 26, 2024; Pierce Atwood LLP, Sept. 10, 2026) A citizen initiative filed for the November 2028 ballot, reported Aug. 13, 2026, would let local boards permit a data center only after two-thirds of local voters approve it and after it secures a utility contract shielding other ratepayers from its costs and a water-supply certification; the Attorney General's decision on whether it qualifies was due by Sept. 2, 2026, and the outcome was not found. (Ballotpedia News, Aug. 13, 2026) Massachusetts data centers →