Keeping Lowell in the Loop

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. As noted by the New York Times, "That's different from the hyperscale data centers that are built to serve the needs of global technology companies."

Markley uses both evaporative and closed-loop cooling. At the summer peak, the Lowell facility uses at most 118,000 gallons a day, just under one percent of the entire city's daily water use and about 0.4% of the city's total capacity. Its 12-month daily average is around 90,000 gallons (67,000 in winter, 118,000 in summer), per 2025 Markley Lowell water bills. For comparison, UMass Lowell's projected daily average is about 284,000 gallons, more than twice what our facility uses at its peak.

With our sound attenuation investment, a backup generator produces only about 44 decibels, quieter than a soft conversation three feet away (55 decibels, per the Federal Highway Administration's reference levels). As for how often they run: a backup generator is backup only. It engages during an actual power disruption, plus a brief weekly test of about five minutes per unit—one generator at a time. Altogether that's roughly five minutes a week, about 14 hours a year. Massachusetts permits allow up to 50 hours a year for testing and maintenance; last year our Lowell generators ran about 14 hours, less than a third of the limit.

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.

According to a recent analysis by NeighborhoodScout, Lowell has experienced some of the highest home appreciation rates of any community in the nation in the last 10 years. Lowell real estate appreciated 113.11% over the last ten years, which is an average annual home appreciation rate of 7.86%, putting Lowell in the top 20% nationally for real estate appreciation. A home on Moore St. adjacent to the Lowell facility recently sold for $605,000—well above the average Lowell home value.

An independent engineering analysis from VHB Engineering found that over the course of a year, Markley's backup generators on the Lowell campus put out about as much particulate matter as 5 homes heated with oil or 9 homes heated with gas. Markley has also invested more than $700,000 per backup generator in the latest emission-control technology, which removes about 98% of particulate matter. The campus itself is getting greener: Markley has planted more than 2,000 trees.

To ensure the quality of water runoff, Markley spent millions to install a complex filter system that provides a modern, efficient, and environmentally friendly approach that meets EPA regulations. The system captures and holds stormwater to reduce runoff and releases it at a controlled rate to allow it to percolate into the ground to replenish groundwater supplies.

Since opening a decade ago, Markley has donated to various charities and community organizations, including the Lowell Folk Festival, the Mill City Festival, the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, Lowell City of Lights and the Sun Santa Fund.

Markley paid the city approximately $1,500,000 in Property Taxes, Permit Fees, Water/Sewer Fees and Fire Watch services in the first half of 2026. If Markley had not purchased and redeveloped the property, Property Taxes are projected to have been approximately $85,000 annually.