CoreWeave representatives told the Kenilworth Borough Council during public comment that the company has acquired roughly 40 acres of the former Merck Sherry Plow site and intends to convert an existing former laboratory on that property into a data center that will house a 40‑megawatt supercomputer.

The announcement came during the council's public‑comment period at the meeting. Stephen Hale, representing CoreWeave, introduced the project's operations lead, Mike Trulizzi, who described the planned facility and staffing. "We are a specialized cloud computing company, so we build supercomputers," Trulizzi said. He added the initial facility will be "a 40 megawatt supercomputer."

Why it matters: the project would reuse a large industrial property and bring construction and technical jobs to Kenilworth, plus on‑site operations staff and a global monitoring presence. "For this building, we'll be roughly 30" on‑site employees, Trulizzi said, describing the company's rule of thumb of about "half to three quarters of a full time equivalent per megawatt." He also said CoreWeave will house a global command center in the Kenilworth building to monitor its portfolio.

Company background and plans: Trulizzi said CoreWeave is New Jersey‑based, headquartered in Livingston, and has about 40 data centers globally. He described the firm's strategy as "design, build, and operate" rather than leasing space. The company plans a phased approach: on‑site operators will begin to arrive after the new year, with technicians ramping up around March, Trulizzi said. He said the facility's larger mechanical infrastructure (chillers, generators, switchgear) is expected to have multiyear usable lives, while compute hardware like GPUs typically refresh on a roughly six‑ to seven‑year cycle.

Local hiring and outreach: Trulizzi said CoreWeave has experience developing training curricula and engaging with military organizations and schools to recruit and train workers. "We actually develop training curriculums. We engage with military organizations and bringing folks that are coming back into civilian life," he said, noting the company will post jobs locally as construction advances.

Technical notes: Trulizzi said the company intends to run a high‑density, liquid‑cooled compute environment rather than rely solely on air cooling, which he said improves efficiency. He described the site's layout and modular design as allowing GPU refreshes without replacing major electrical or mechanical systems.

Council response and next steps: Council members and the mayor welcomed the company to Kenilworth and said the borough looks forward to working with CoreWeave on a redevelopment agreement and related approvals. Stephen Hale said CoreWeave will work with borough counsel and staff to finalize the redevelopment agreement. No formal council action on the redevelopment agreement or site approvals was recorded during the public comments portion; planning and approvals will proceed through the borough's formal review and redevelopment processes.

Public‑record items and timeline: the CoreWeave representatives said demolition and initial site work were underway and that the company will present and coordinate details with borough professionals as the redevelopment agreement is finalized. The council moved to executive session later in the meeting to discuss matters with professionals in attendance; no formal action on the redevelopment agreement was recorded in the public session.