Pennsylvania's Dauphin Highlands Closes for $10B Data Center

Dauphin Highlands Golf Course, a public layout overlooking the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, played its last round on Monday after 31 years in operation. The Dauphin County General Authority sold the 228-acre property for $45 million to a Texas-based data-center developer, which plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, $10 billion facility on the site.

Why did Dauphin Highlands close?

The authority has said the course was losing money and had built up $13 million in debt. Local officials said the sale will also bring the township tens of millions of dollars in community benefits, including public safety and municipal infrastructure improvements. Construction on the data center isn't scheduled to start until next year, though test drilling on the property has already begun.

The Bill Love-designed course opened on Labor Day weekend in 1995, on land that had previously served as a corporate retreat for Bethlehem Steel Corporation. The county acquired the property from the steel company in 1992 after the steel market collapsed, then converted it into a golf course three years later.

How did golfers mark the final day?

More than 300 golfers played the course on its closing day, many sharing memories from rounds past. Tim Birney, Dauphin Highlands' director of instruction since 2012, played in the final group of the day alongside Fred DeCock, who had also played the course's opening round in 1995, and Joe Navin. Memento-seekers had already pulled the flagsticks from several greens by the time Birney's group made the turn.

It's been an honor and a privilege to work here.

Birney, who said he has given thousands of lessons at the course over more than a decade, choked up describing a call with his manager at Troon Golf, which oversaw operations at Dauphin Highlands: "It's been an honor and a privilege to work here." The course's pro shop had been cleared out by Tuesday, with scorecards boxed up and only a handful of golf gloves left on the shelves. The club hosted a thank-you dinner for its staff that evening.