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There's still plenty we don't know about Silicon Foundation's proposed data center and energy technology campus at the former Centre Foundry property in Warwood.
And there are plenty of legitimate questions that need to keep being asked.
But after Tuesday night's Wheeling City Council meeting, we know a lot more than we did before. That's a good thing, in my opinion.
Andrii Garanin, chief energy and infrastructure officer for Silicon Foundation, stood before members of council and outlined what his company says it wants to do along River Road.
The plan, he said, is for a phased GPU data center and energy technology campus using the infrastructure already available at the vacant industrial property.
More importantly, he also made some pretty specific promises.
Garanin said the operation will stay within the site's existing 69-kV electrical connection. He said it will neither draw water from nor discharge water into the Ohio River. He said there will be no air emissions from the operation. And he said it won't produce the kind of excessive noise and lighting that have made some of the massive data center projects elsewhere so controversial.
Can we know today that all of that will happen exactly as Garanin says?
Of course not.
But at some point, we have to take the man at his word -- while also doing everything possible to make sure those words have some legal weight behind them.
And adding legal protections to the city and the surrounding neighborhood is just what Silicon Foundation is proposing.
Silicon Foundation attorney -- and Wheeling resident -- David Croft said the company has proposed a memorandum of understanding with the city that would bind it to never seek designation as a high-impact data center under West Virginia law.
At the same time, city officials are looking at expanding Wheeling's Tax Increment Financing district to include the Centre Foundry property. City Manager Robert Herron said putting the property into the TIF district would give the city another legal mechanism to limit the project's scope.
That's a big deal.
Remember, House Bill 2014, approved by the West Virginia Legislature in 2025, took a lot of these decisions out of the hands of local government when it comes to certified high-impact data centers. The law severely limits what cities can do regarding zoning, noise, lighting, development, land use and other issues that normally would be decided locally.
Put another way: If somebody wanted to build a massive high-impact data center here under HB 2014, Wheeling and its residents would have relatively little say in the matter.
So maybe we need to consider what's being proposed in Warwood through that lens.
If Silicon Foundation legally agrees that it won't seek high-impact status, and if the TIF gives Wheeling another enforceable way to keep this project from becoming something substantially different five or 10 years from now, then the city has something it otherwise might not have: leverage.
Put everything possible in writing. Define the limits. Spell out the expectations. Protect the neighborhood. Protect the Ohio River. And if Silicon Foundation agrees to those conditions, hold the company to every single one of them.
Now we come to the harder part of this discussion.
What exactly do we want Wheeling to become?
This proud city has spent the past 90-plus years experiencing population loss. The conversation for many remains on how things in Wheeling used to be -- very rarely does it turn to what Wheeling needs to be, or at least what it could be.
Recall, Wheeling's population in the 1930 Census was 61,659. As of July 1, 2025, it stands at 25,680, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's a figure that can't be ignored.
So we have a city that in nine-plus decades has lost more than half its population, and the response is an automatic "no" when somebody proposes investing more than $100 million here?
This isn't to say that every project is a good project. It doesn't mean every developer who shows up with a big number and a slick presentation gets a free pass.
And it certainly doesn't mean the people of Warwood should stop asking questions to ensure the developer sticks to his word.
But there's a difference between scrutiny and paralysis.
And that's where Wheeling has to be careful.
The former Centre Foundry property isn't a pristine piece of land fronting the Ohio River where developers are lined up waiting for their chance to build. It has limited redevelopment opportunities.
And we see what happens to properties such as that throughout the Ohio Valley. They sit and decay.
And eventually somebody -- almost always the taxpayers -- gets stuck dealing with what remains.
Silicon Foundation says it wants to put this property back to productive use with an investment exceeding $100 million. That deserves serious consideration.
Not automatic approval. Consideration.
Especially if Wheeling can establish legally enforceable limits around what can and cannot happen there.
I'm not asking anyone to become a cheerleader for data centers. I'm certainly not one.
But I am urging that we recognize where Wheeling finds itself today.
We need jobs. We need investment. We need opportunities that give young people another reason to build their lives here. We need old industrial properties returned to productive use.
And, perhaps more than anything, we need to change a narrative that has been written over nine decades of decline.
That won't happen without taking some chances.
The easiest thing in the world is to say no. However, there's one significant problem with that approach.
Nothing gets better, either.
So Wheeling should protect itself. Negotiate the strongest agreement possible. Put Silicon Foundation's promises into legally enforceable language. Use the TIF district and every other tool available to make certain this project remains what Garanin says it will be.
And then?
Maybe we give it a chance.
Because if Wheeling is serious about changing the trajectory of the past nine decades, if, as we discussed last week, we are serious about improving the lives of our youth by providing new opportunities for those that live here, then we can't start every conversation about investment in this community with the same word: No.
Instead, let's consider giving this project a chance.
John McCabe is editor of The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register. Reach him at jmccabe@theintelligencer.net