Montville — A developer eager to attract major tech firms plans to build a large-scale data center between Route 32 and the Thames River, a project officials say could jolt the town's economy while overhauling a dilapidated area where dozens of homes were left vacant more than a decade ago.

The Planning and Zoning Commission unveiled and unanimously approved the site plan for the first phase of the project this week. Developer Verde Group LLC hopes to build two large data storage buildings — at 87,000 and 166,000 square feet, each with an office, electrical room and data hall with computer and networking equipment — on 65 acres, with room for potential expansion on a 300-acre site.

"This could be transformational for the town of Montville," said Mayor Ron McDaniel, who negotiated with the developer for years. "I met with these people in my dining room, in diners, in coffee shops to try to figure out how to get where we needed to be. The economy was morphing, so we had to make sure the best and highest use for this property. We're halfway between Boston and New York, it's prime property here. When you look at what's going on in the economy right now, data centers are the future. With the amount of data people need between their phones, Internet and streaming TV, data is huge."

McDaniel declined to discuss potential costs of the project or eventual property tax revenue to the town, noting officials and the developer were still "two or three pieces away from finishing the jigsaw puzzle," including finalizing purchases of multiple properties and the clearing of several dilapidated homes and lots within the next several months.

The project's approval also came a year after a previous owner of the site paid $1.3 million in back taxes owed since 2010. Previous owners and mortgage holders were plagued by bankruptcies and lawsuits as plans stalled for hotels, golf courses, luxury condominiums, upscale stores and a marina, leaving overgrown plots and empty houses ransacked and tarnished by graffiti and garbage left by squatters.

The current site owner, Mohegan Hill Montville LLC, whose principal is Verde Group LLC, agreed to demolish several of the vacant houses on Massapeag Side Road, Driscoll Drive and Derry Hill Road, before constructing the data storage buildings, which could house multiple tenants.

"We're in discussions with all the name brands," Verde Group LLC President and CEO Thomas Quinn told the Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday. "The ancillary business opportunities and housing opportunities will make a huge difference in any area where you have these kinds of data centers."

A message left with Quinn on Friday was not immediately responded to, but he told town officials that his company wanted "to get started sooner rather than later. We'd like to make this 5G market that's coming at us very quickly."

Quinn also said the Montville data center would be "one of the ones to look to for clean and green," noting the data storage buildings would house gas engine generators, as opposed to diesel, for backup power.

Town Councilor and Finance Committee Chairman Wills Pike said Friday that the project could put Montville on the map for technology firms as 5G wireless — the next mobile technology standard — hits the market next year.

"A storage hub so businesses don't have to clog up their own hard drives is an exciting piece of technology," Pike said. "Montville is geographically placed really well for this type of project. Big companies could come and store data. It's very exciting."

The owners are overcoming a lack of frontage along Route 32 — which Town Planner Marcia Vlaun described as a yearslong stumbling block for development at the site — by purchasing abutting privately owned parcels and land north of Saint Bernard School owned by the Norwich Roman Catholic Diocesan Corporation.

Plans call for the extension of water, sewer, gas, electric and telecommunications lines, and will require a number of permits, including a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stormwater quality permit. The project does not impact any regulated wetlands.

Quinn said the large buildings were "benign, boxy buildings with a few parking spaces in front," with about eight to 10 employees and little traffic during normal operations.

Vlaun, who said the site plan met Planning and Zoning requirements, noted the buildings' sizes and configurations may depend on proprietary requirements of potential tenants.

The Planning and Zoning Commission's approval was conditional, and Verde Group LLC must meet more than two dozen conditions for the project to push forward, including providing sewer capacity and underground infiltration details and completing demolition of at least 10 vacant houses within the next year.

Town Councilor Billy Caron applauded the project and sympathized with nearby homeowners "keeping up their lawns and keeping up their properties" while vacant homes within the site fell into disrepair over the years.

"Now this developer comes in and is already taking initiative to tear them down and be a good taxpayer for our town," Caron said.

b.kail@theday.com