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Data Center Registry

Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor)

Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island

ProposedOpposedAI mixed useRecord updated October 26, 2026

Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) is a proposed data center in Smithfield, Rhode Island (Providence County), operated by Hanton City Investments LLC. The public record puts it at announced May 2026. It faces documented, organized local opposition.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Proposed

Operator
Hanton City Investments LLC
Facility type
Data center, AI use mixed
Location
George Washington Highway, Smithfield, Providence County, RI
Coordinates
41.8670, -71.5270 (approximate)
Power capacity
Not established from a public source
Land
Not established from a public source
Investment
Not established from a public source
Announced
May 2026
Utility
Rhode Island Energy (Narragansett)
Power source
Grid
Cooling
Not established from a public source
Water use
Not established from a public source
Jobs
Not established from a public source
Public subsidy
Not established from a public source
Community reception
Opposed
Source confidence
Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

  1. May 2026
    Proposed
    Hanton City Investments LLC (Ryan Polumbo of Revity Energy and John Branca) filed a zoning application for an industrial/warehousing park with a data center anchor tenant on undeveloped woodland near the Fidelity Investments campus. The application was filed May 4, 2026, one day before the Smithfield Town Council voted 4-1 to ban data centers. No megawatt capacity has been publicly disclosed. Source: Ocean State Media

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Organized local opposition to Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) in Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island is documented in the public record. Smithfield Town Council voted 4-1 (May 5, 2025) to amend zoning to list data centers as "not permitted" in all districts; Hanton City Investments filed its application May 4, one day before the vote, preserving pre-ban review (a use variance faces "a pretty high bar").

A new status, a permit, a reception finding, or a lawsuit. Nothing else, ever.

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: opposed means documented, organized local opposition is the dominant signal on record.

Smithfield Town Council voted 4-1 (May 5, 2025) to amend zoning to list data centers as "not permitted" in all districts; Hanton City Investments filed its application May 4, one day before the vote, preserving pre-ban review (a use variance faces "a pretty high bar"). Council President Tassoni expects the developer to sue. The widely cited $59M is projected 30-year town tax REVENUE, not facility investment; the developer said the project "may never happen" absent a state tax break (RI SB 2346, a 30-year sales/use exemption, was held by the Senate as of April 2026).

Source: Ocean State Media

Power and water

Whether the town's existing water and sewer infrastructure can handle the development is disputed through a town availability letter, which developers say they received only on Sept 1, 2026. No project cooling type or water-use figure has been disclosed.

Notes on the record

No megawatt capacity has been publicly disclosed, so no capacity is recorded. The $59M figure cited in coverage is projected town tax revenue over 30 years, not facility investment, so it is not recorded as investment. Additional coverage (Rhode Island Current, ecoRI News) could not be retrieved as of July 2026 and is not cited; as of October 2026, the cited press coverage is the Ocean State Media and Valley Breeze articles. Coordinates are approximate Smithfield-area coordinates.

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

  • Power capacity in megawatts
  • Cooling method and water use
  • Tax abatements or other public subsidy
  • Permanent jobs promised
  • Land area
Which document closes each gap
Power capacity in megawatts
The utility's large load service agreement, the interconnection request in the grid operator's queue, or the electrical site plan in the permit file.
Cooling method and water use
The water service agreement, any groundwater appropriation permit, and the mechanical narrative in the site plan.
Tax abatements or other public subsidy
The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
Permanent jobs promised
The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
Land area
The rezoning application, the plat, or the deed recorded with the county.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

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Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) in Smithfield?

Yes. Organized local opposition to Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) in Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island is documented in the public record. Smithfield Town Council voted 4-1 (May 5, 2025) to amend zoning to list data centers as "not permitted" in all districts; Hanton City Investments filed its application May 4, one day before the vote, preserving pre-ban review (a use variance faces "a pretty high bar").

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor)?

The reception note on this record refers to a court proceeding. Read it in full under opposition and litigation above, and check the sources at the foot of the page for the filing itself.

How much water does Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) use?

No water withdrawal figure for Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor) is on record here. Water use is rarely published voluntarily; it usually surfaces through a utility service agreement or a state withdrawal permit, both of which are public records. We leave the number blank rather than estimate one.

Who operates Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor), and how big is it?

Hanton City Investments LLC is the operator on record. No capacity figure is on record for this site.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Hanton City Business Park (data center anchor)," updated October 26, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/hanton-city-smithfield-ri.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/hanton-city-smithfield-ri, retrieved October 29, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

  1. 1.Proposed data center still looms over Smithfield, even after town council enacts ban · Ocean State Media · retrieved July 6, 2026
  2. 2.Smithfield puts the brakes on potential data center · Valley Breeze · retrieved July 6, 2026
  3. 3.HIFLD Electric Retail Service Territories (ORNL/DOE-CESER, 2023-08 vintage) · Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) / HIFLD · retrieved July 23, 2026
  4. 4.Smithfield Corporate Complex Appeal Pushed to January 2027 · Uprise RI · retrieved October 26, 2026
  5. 5.Smithfield to defend decision to ban data center (Oct 1, 2026) · The Valley Breeze · retrieved October 26, 2026

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