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From your neighbors in Lowell

Keeping Lowell in the Loop

Your reliable neighbor for over 10 years. The City Council's moratorium puts Lowell's jobs, services, and one of its largest investments at risk. It doesn't have to.

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A smiling Markley data center technician in the server hall
$650Minvested to bring a vacant Lowell factory back to life
Why this matters now

A good neighbor, suddenly at risk

For more than a decade, the Markley data center has been a steady, reliable part of Lowell. It brought a long-empty factory back to life and quietly keeps the systems our community depends on running every day.

Now that's at risk. The City Council has passed a moratorium on data center development, a decision that threatens the future of a facility Lowell has relied on for over a decade. It puts good local jobs in question, it sends a signal that Lowell is closing its doors to responsible investment, and it risks the services our hospitals, banks, and first responders count on.

Markley hasn't changed. It's the same good neighbor it has always been, operating responsibly and growing carefully.

What's changed is the moratorium, and we have a short window to ask the Council to reconsider. If you believe Lowell is stronger with Markley in it, here's how to help.

Sign the petition
A technician working at the racks inside the Markley facility
Markley keeps the digital systems Lowell and Massachusetts rely on running every day.
How you can help

Your voice makes a difference

Here's how to stand up for Lowell. Every one of these takes just a few minutes.

1
Takes 10 seconds

Sign the petition

Tell the Council you support Markley and want the moratorium lifted. Every signature counts.

Sign the petition
2
Takes 2 minutes

Contact your Council member

A short, personal message from a constituent carries real weight. We've made it easy.

Contact the council
3
Your experience matters

Share your story

Work at Markley, rely on its services, or live nearby? Share your story here.

Share your story
The restored Markley building and grounds in Lowell, after redevelopment The same Lowell site before redevelopment Before After
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From empty factory to community asset

A neighbor that put something back

For years, the old Prince Macaroni plant sat empty on the edge of Lowell. Markley changed that.

The company invested more than $650 million to convert the historic 350,000-square-foot building into a state-of-the-art facility, while preserving the structure that had defined that part of the city for generations. The building's footprint and height weren't expanded; instead, the investment poured into the surrounding environment, cleaning and revitalizing the neighboring brook and planting over 600 trees.

What sat idle for years now supports more than 100 full-time jobs, hundreds of skilled trades workers, and the digital infrastructure that families, businesses, and institutions across the region rely on every day.

That's not a company that arrived to take something from Lowell. It's a neighbor that put something back.

Not all data centers are the same

Markley is the opposite of what you're picturing

When people hear "data center" these days, they tend to picture the giant facilities that make national headlines: single-customer complexes built to run the global workloads of one huge tech company, usually with a heavy draw on local water and power.

Hyperscale

The facilities in the headlines

A private cloud built for one corporation. A single customer at enormous scale, with a big appetite for local water and power. That's the image most people carry around, and it isn't Markley.

Colocation

What Markley actually is

This is a colocation data center. Markley owns and operates the building, including its power, cooling, and connectivity, and local and regional organizations rent secure space inside to run their own technology. Rather than a private cloud for one corporation, it's a multi-tenant facility serving the surrounding community. This is everyday critical infrastructure, not a speculative build-out.

A Markley worker walking the aisle of a data hall
Everyday critical infrastructure

The digital backbone our region runs on

Hospitals, banks, universities, and first responders depend on the systems inside this building, kept online every day by people who live and work right here.

Facts, not fiction

There's a lot of noise. Here's the truth.

Most of it is about facilities that look nothing like Markley. Let's set the record straight.

Myth

Markley is the kind of giant AI data center straining communities across the country.

Fact

Markley operates at a fraction of the scale of the hyperscale facilities in the news. It's a community-based, multi-tenant facility that has served Lowell for over a decade and the Boston region for far longer, supporting hospitals, banks, universities, and public safety agencies, not the global workloads of a single tech company.

Myth

Data centers like this drain local water.

Fact

Residential water rates in Lowell remain among the lowest 5% in all of Massachusetts, according to the 2025 Lowell Regional Water Utility Consumer Confidence Report. Lowell's water system is also operating at less than half of the capacity it's capable of. The facts simply don't support the claim that Markley is straining the community's water.

Myth

The emergency backup generators will be loud and run for long periods of time.

Fact

An emergency backup generator is exactly that: used for a prolonged period only during a major power disruption. These systems ensure continuity for the vital digital infrastructure that powers our lives, businesses, and government services, and they're tested weekly in line with industry best practice and the limits set by state regulators. With our sound attenuation investment, a generator produces only about 44 decibels, quieter than a quiet conversation three feet away (55 dB, per the Federal Highway Administration's reference levels). Backup power keeps hospital records, financial systems, and emergency services online during an outage. It runs rarely, and in Lowell weekly testing lasts only about five minutes.

Myth

This facility is an AI project that just showed up.

Fact

Markley has been part of Lowell since 2015 and operating in Boston since the 1990s. AI is one part of a diverse and growing set of customer needs, but it isn't what defines the facility. If you've banked online or used the internet in Massachusetts over the past decade, there's a good chance a Markley data center helped make it possible.

Markley's Lowell investment

By the numbers

$0M+
invested to bring a vacant factory back to life
0+
full-time jobs at the facility
100s
of skilled union trades jobs supported, through IBEW Local 103 and Pipefitters Local 537
0+
years as a part of the Lowell community

Hospitals, banks, universities, and first responders rely on the facility every day

Behind the numbers: the electricity used here keeps medical records accessible, financial systems running, and public services online. As Markley's customers grow, some have moved dedicated technical staff to Lowell and the surrounding area to support their work here.

In their own words

The people behind Lowell's data center

"
I've been a member of IBEW Local 103 for over twenty years, and I've worked on a lot of projects across this state. What Markley built in Lowell is genuinely state-of-the-art. People hear "data center" and picture a room full of computers, but Markley is the digital backbone our hospitals, universities, and public safety agencies depend on. A moratorium doesn't protect anyone. It threatens the livelihoods of the working families I represent. This is exactly the kind of project Massachusetts needs more of, not less.
Lou Antonellis
Business Manager, IBEW Local 103
"
I own a home in Lowell, and I've watched this city work hard to build its future. That site sat empty for years; it wasn't creating jobs or doing anything for the community. Lowell needed this kind of investment for decades, and Markley delivered it. This isn't just good for business. It's good for the people who live here.
Jaclyn Casey
Manager, Markley Group · Lowell resident

Your story belongs here

Do you work at Markley, rely on its services, or live nearby? Resident and small-business voices are the most persuasive part of this campaign, and we're adding them as they come in.

Share your story
Contact the city council

A two-minute message carries real weight

A short, personal note from a constituent is one of the most effective things you can do. Tell the Council, in your own words, why you want the moratorium lifted, whether you work at Markley, rely on its services, or simply believe Lowell is stronger with it here.

Contact the council

A few things you might mention

  • Your connection to Lowell, and how long you've lived or worked here
  • Why the jobs and services Markley supports matter to you
  • A respectful ask: please reconsider and lift the moratorium
Join the conversation

Follow along and help spread the word

Sharing this page with neighbors is one of the most powerful things you can do. Follow the campaign, post why Markley matters to you, and tag a friend.

A technician installing a server inside the Markley data center
About Markley

Nearly three decades serving New England

The Markley Group is a New England-based company that has operated data centers in the region for nearly three decades. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Boston, Markley owns and operates one of the largest carrier-neutral data centers in New England, along with its Lowell facility.

Markley's customers include hospitals, financial institutions, universities, law firms, and regional businesses, organizations that need their technology to be secure, always available, and professionally managed.

Stand with Markley · Sign the petition