Data Center Provider Steel Orca Files for Bankruptcy

Steel Orca, a Newtown, Pennsylvania-based data center service provider, has filed for bankruptcy, following a failed attempt to convert a defunct steel mill on the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border into a data center.

The company, which according to its website also operates a data center in Princeton, New Jersey, filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this month, according to public bankruptcy court documents available online. Under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a debtor’s assets are handed over to a trustee for distribution among creditors.

Bunce Atkinson, a bankruptcy attorney with Red Bank, New Jersey-based Atkinson & DeBartolo, was appointed as the trustee in Steel Orca’s case. Atkinson or Steel Orca representatives could not be reached for comment Monday.

Steel Orca had grand plans for its data center project in Bucks County. The data center would be 300,000 square feet in size, use multiple local renewable energy sources, and be cooled by water from the Delaware River to reduce energy use of the cooling system.

The project stalled, but the company did not explain why. Another data center is going up at the steel mill site, being built by a company called Keystone Nap that has some links to Steel Orca. Keystone president John Parker was involved with Steel Orca as an attorney.

Keystone CEO Peter Ritz told Philadelphia Business Journal that the Steel Orca project “fell through,” which allowed for formation of Keystone. He did not say why the first data center project at the site failed.