Amazon is planning four new data center campuses in Virginia's Spotsylvania and Caroline Counties amounting to more than 10 million square feet of development.
First reported by the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, the company has filed four applications with Spotsylvania County for new data center campuses.
Amazon has filed to develop the Summit Crossing Tech Campus, the Carter’s Store Tech Campus, the Cosner Tech Campus, and part of the Orrock Tech Campus in the county. Most of the Orrock campus will be in neighboring Caroline County.
Most of the campuses are close to the town of Carter’s Store, located south of Fredericksburg. Documents suggest the company is planning to invest around $1 billion in each project, most of which will be built out in phases until around 2035.
A fifth proposal, known as Hunters Ridge, has also been filed, but seemingly separately from Amazon’s plans.
Update: An AWS spokesperson reached out to DCD to say: “We recently submitted an application in Spotsylvania County as part of the due diligence process in exploring possible locations for investment. We are spending time in each community listening to residents and local leaders to understand their priorities and are proud of the ways our data centers have positively impacted data center communities through our investments, employee volunteering and outreach, delivering education programs, and skills training programs to help students pursue good paying careers in technology fields. AWS is committed to being a good neighbor in every community where we have a presence and we look forward to continuing these conversations throughout the permitting process.”
Cosner Tech Campus
Amazon Data Services, Inc. has filed to rezone 329 acres at 4049 Massaponax Church Road & 9300 Cosner Drive from the Mixed Use-3 and -4 (MU-3 and MU-4) zoning districts to Industrial-2 (I-2) to develop a data center campus.
The land is currently undeveloped and mostly woodland. The company aims to develop approximately 1.9 million square feet of data center space and two substations.
Phase one would see two 250,000 sq ft data centers and a substation built alongside an office building, water treatment facility, and logistics facility. It's unclear how many buildings the campus would hold at full build-out.
Summit Crossing Tech Campus
Amazon Data Services, Inc., is filing to rezone 231 acres at Summit Crossing Road from Rural District (RU) to Industrial-1 (I-1) n order to develop a data center campus.
Amazon aims to develop approximately 2.1 million square feet of data center space
Carter's Store Tech Campus
Amazon Data Services, Inc. has filed to rezone 314 acres at 8432 Flippo Drive, located south of Fredericksburg and to the east of Interstate-95, from Rural to Industrial-1 in order to develop a data center campus.
The land is currently undeveloped and mostly woodland. Amazon aims to develop approximately 2.6 million square feet of data center space and a substation in phases by 2035. The number of buildings is unclear.
Orrock Tech Campus
Amazon Data Services, Inc. has filed with Spotsylvania County to rezone 158 acres off Orrock Road from Agricultural-2 (A-2) to Industrial-2 (I-2) to “support its neighboring data center industrial campus in Caroline County, Virginia.”
The company aims to build up to 50,000 sq ft for light public utility and related accessory uses.
The main Orrock campus will be in Caroline County, where Amazon aims to develop approximately 4.5 million square feet of data center space across some 920 acres.
Hunters Ridge
Hunters Ridge LLC is the applicant and is seeking to rezone around 127 acres immediately south of 4110 Overview Drive and Mills Drive (Route 17) and just east of Cosner Drive from Rural District (RU) to Industrial-2 (I-2) to develop data centers.
Located east of Cosner's Corner, the Hunters Ridge Office Park would initially see two 150,000 sq ft buildings and an on-site substation developed. Future phases would see a further six buildings developed.
Most of the land is vacant, but one of the parcels currently includes a former mattress factory. The land parcels are owned by the Jett family and Kent Brothers, LLC.
Developers eye Virginia’s rural counties
While Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the world, Spotsylvania County, located south of Culpeper County, isn’t known for its data centers. In 2019, Singapore-based TES announced plans to invest $1.29 million to establish a new information technology asset disposition (ITAD) center in the area.
However, earlier this year SpotsyTechnoCampus, LLC filed to rezone 315 acres in Thornburg for data centers and industrial warehouses. The SpotsyTech Campus could see up to 2.6 million sq ft of industrial development plus 300,000 sq ft of commercial and office space.
Caroline County has also been relatively untouched by the data center boom. However, an application filing for a VALCO Data Center Park was made earlier this year for a new campus at the end of Route 700 (Mt Airy Road) near Houstons Corner. The project would see some 855 acres rezoned to allow for up to 10 data centers, ranging in size from 75,000 sq ft to 250,000 sq ft.
Loudoun and Fairfax Counties have traditionally been Virginia’s data center hub. As available land and power have become harder to come by, many developers are expanding into Prince William County.
However, some early movers are seeking to develop major campuses across the state.
Orange, Culpeper, Stafford, Fauquier, King George, Frederick, and Tazewell Counties have all seen data center applications filed in the last two years. Amazon, which already has a significant footprint in Virginia, is confirmed to be involved in a number of these proposals, and rumored to be involved in more.
AWS says it has invested around $35 billion in Virginia since 2006, and recently announced plans to invest an additional $35 billion by 2040.
Microsoft has filed a number of applications to expand its presence in Mecklenburg County
