Alcoa Sells Former Massena East Smelter Site in New York for Data Center Development

Alcoa Corporation has reached a definitive agreement to sell its former Massena East aluminum smelter in Massena, New York, to an undisclosed data center company for a potential total of $315 million. The deal, expected to close within six months, will initially provide Alcoa with $50 million to $65 million, with additional payments up to $250 million over seven years as data center capacity is developed and commissioned.

While the buyer remains officially unnamed, cryptominer NYDIG, through its affiliate North Country Colocation Services, is strongly linked to the acquisition. NYDIG has filed plans with the town of Massena for an 88-acre project on the former Alcoa East/Reynolds Campus, proposing 635MW across two buildings totaling 870,000 square feet for "modern computing operations."

The 1,600-acre site, originally a Reynolds Metals Facility from 1958, was acquired by Alcoa in 2000 and closed in 2014 due to competitiveness issues. This sale is part of Alcoa's asset monetization strategy, which includes seeking buyers for ten former smelter sites across the US, targeting data center developers. This trend of repurposing heavy industrial sites for data centers is growing, as seen with other former smelters in Maryland and Kentucky.

For developers and investors, this transaction highlights the increasing value of large, industrially zoned sites with existing infrastructure for data center conversions, offering significant redevelopment opportunities.