Key Takeaways
- • Digital Realty ($DLR) paid $120 million in 2025 for a 97-acre parcel at the former Fort Gillem Army post in Forest Park, Georgia, and is building a data center complex there with a planned $3 billion total investment, according to Hunterbrook Media's investigation.
- • In December 2025, crews encountered white phosphorus on the site that reacted with air and produced dense white smoke, prompting a bomb squad response; a Digital Realty spokesperson said the excavated material, recovered in five 30-gallon steel drums, has been removed.
- • The Army dumped gas masks, medical waste, solvents, sewage sludge and other materials on the parcel from 1941 to around 1980, including the carcinogen trichloroethylene (TCE), and groundwater plumes have reached residential wells beyond the fence line.
- • Digital Realty says it expects to invest more than $100 million in site remediation and environmental work, and that onsite buildings will include vapor mitigation systems; the first phase is expected to open in early 2028.
- • Hunterbrook reports that similar data center projects on contaminated land are underway elsewhere, including TeraWulf's Kentucky smelter site, SB Energy's Ohio site and Sentinel Data Centers' Pennsylvania Superfund site.
Summary
Digital Realty, one of the world's largest real estate investment trusts, paid $120 million in 2025 for a 97-acre parcel that was once part of Fort Gillem, a former U.S. Army post in Forest Park, Georgia, according to a Hunterbrook Media investigation. The company is constructing a large data center complex on the site and plans to spend $3 billion on the project, with the first phase expected to open in early 2028. Executives have described the project as returning the land to a "productive, tax-generating use."
The parcel carries a significant environmental legacy. From 1941 until around 1980, the Army dumped materials including gas masks, medical waste, solvents and sewage sludge on the northwest corner of the base, which now hosts warehouses including a Kroger distribution center and an Amazon delivery station. The Army buried chlorinated solvents, including TCE, and household trash that now generates methane. Groundwater plumes containing solvents have migrated beyond the fence line and reached residential wells. After toxic vapors were found seeping into nearby homes in 2014, the Army installed a ventilation system beneath a nearby daycare and agreed to place carbon air filters in 22 homes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A Digital Realty asset manager told county officials in 2025 there were "tons and tons and tons" of physical trash and environmental hazards on the site.
In December 2025, the company encountered white phosphorus, which according to an environmental consultant's letter to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division "reacted when exposed to air and exhibited a dense white smoke." The company contacted the Army and local police, and a bomb squad inspected and sampled the material. The letter said the affected area, on the western side of the property, is expected to be encapsulated under the planned building foundation. A Georgia EPD spokesperson confirmed a temporary work stoppage in the area and that removal was under way in February. Digital Realty said no injuries were reported and that no other munitions have been encountered since the discovery. White phosphorus is used in artillery shells, rockets and grenades, and the letter assumed its presence is associated with historical Army disposal operations. Hunterbrook also notes that the Army's 2023 property transfer report warns of buried expended ordnance, and that residents in neighboring communities report wall cracks from explosive blasting on the site and say their environmental and health concerns have gone unanswered.
Digital Realty has acknowledged the remediation burden, stating it expects to invest more than $100 million in site remediation, including stream mitigation, methane remediation and soil and bedrock stabilization. The company said onsite data center buildings will include vapor mitigation systems for chlorinated volatile organic compounds and, where warranted, methane components. Its most recent annual filing lists environmental contamination as a general business risk without naming Fort Gillem specifically. Urban Redevelopment Agency chair Kimberly James told Hunterbrook that Digital Realty is undertaking substantial remediation and site work. Digital Realty operates more than 300 data centers worldwide and counts Oracle, IBM, Meta, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley among its customers, according to its website. Hunterbrook also reports that other data center developers are building on contaminated former industrial sites, including TeraWulf in Kentucky, SB Energy in Ohio and Sentinel Data Centers in Pennsylvania.
The parcel carries a significant environmental legacy. From 1941 until around 1980, the Army dumped materials including gas masks, medical waste, solvents and sewage sludge on the northwest corner of the base, which now hosts warehouses including a Kroger distribution center and an Amazon delivery station. The Army buried chlorinated solvents, including TCE, and household trash that now generates methane. Groundwater plumes containing solvents have migrated beyond the fence line and reached residential wells. After toxic vapors were found seeping into nearby homes in 2014, the Army installed a ventilation system beneath a nearby daycare and agreed to place carbon air filters in 22 homes, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A Digital Realty asset manager told county officials in 2025 there were "tons and tons and tons" of physical trash and environmental hazards on the site.
In December 2025, the company encountered white phosphorus, which according to an environmental consultant's letter to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division "reacted when exposed to air and exhibited a dense white smoke." The company contacted the Army and local police, and a bomb squad inspected and sampled the material. The letter said the affected area, on the western side of the property, is expected to be encapsulated under the planned building foundation. A Georgia EPD spokesperson confirmed a temporary work stoppage in the area and that removal was under way in February. Digital Realty said no injuries were reported and that no other munitions have been encountered since the discovery. White phosphorus is used in artillery shells, rockets and grenades, and the letter assumed its presence is associated with historical Army disposal operations. Hunterbrook also notes that the Army's 2023 property transfer report warns of buried expended ordnance, and that residents in neighboring communities report wall cracks from explosive blasting on the site and say their environmental and health concerns have gone unanswered.
Digital Realty has acknowledged the remediation burden, stating it expects to invest more than $100 million in site remediation, including stream mitigation, methane remediation and soil and bedrock stabilization. The company said onsite data center buildings will include vapor mitigation systems for chlorinated volatile organic compounds and, where warranted, methane components. Its most recent annual filing lists environmental contamination as a general business risk without naming Fort Gillem specifically. Urban Redevelopment Agency chair Kimberly James told Hunterbrook that Digital Realty is undertaking substantial remediation and site work. Digital Realty operates more than 300 data centers worldwide and counts Oracle, IBM, Meta, AT&T, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley among its customers, according to its website. Hunterbrook also reports that other data center developers are building on contaminated former industrial sites, including TeraWulf in Kentucky, SB Energy in Ohio and Sentinel Data Centers in Pennsylvania.
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