New Jersey woman warns that a $1.8 billion AI plant is being built next to Manhattan Bagel. Then asked who’s actually benefiting

A new TikTok video going viral on the social media platform wants the people of New Jersey decide whether they really want a $1.8 billion AI data center in their town.

In a video aimed at anyone living in Union County or the towns around it, the Gen Z creator Jordan Panno (@jordanpanno) points to a strip mall in Kenilworth — the one with the Manhattan Bagel, the Jersey Mike’s, the salon — and the site behind it where a Merck facility used to stand. 

That space is apparently turning into a $1.8 billion artificial intelligence plant soon. Panno posits the question a lot of other people from across the nation are asking these days: Does an AI data center benefit anyone in the town or neighborhood where it’s located?

The broad strokes of her account hold up. It’s been reported by News12 that the project sits on the former Merck & Co. campus on Galloping Hill Road, beside the Garden State Parkway. The developer is CoreWeave, a fast-growing cloud company built around AI infrastructure, which bought the building and 27 adjacent acres for $322 million, 

Work on the site started in mid-September (via Real Estate NJ) and the roughly 392,600-square-foot facility is expected to be running by early 2027. The state signed off on a five-year $250 million tax credit for the build, the first award under a new incentive program written specifically to draw AI companies to New Jersey.

It will use enough electricity to power 67-100k households

Panno’s objection is partly philosophical. The Merck facility that used to be there, she argues, at least made something. Medications and patents that contributed something to daily life.

But the other part is resources, including the power it will pull, the water it will use, and most importantly the pollution she expects to trail it. Panno asks viewers to look up living conditions near big data centers elsewhere before deciding they want one down the road.

The content creator is bringing up some numbers too, claiming that the finished project will consume energy equivalent to powering 200,000 homes. The estimate might be a bit off, but filings have described the project as a planned 250-megawatt facility, and state analysts put 100 megawatts at somewhere between 67,000 and 100,000 households — so not exactly a wild claim, either.

Neighbors have packed council meetings by the hundreds and a petition against the project has claimed past 1,500 signatures. (Per News12)

A single TikTok may not stop a building that’s already under construction, but Panno maintains that’s more or less her point. She asks viewers not to feel discouraged and continue fighting.