Denver-based developer Tract recently acquired a 1,200-acre site outside Ashland with plans to prepare the site for the construction of data centers. The company rezoned the area shown in red earlier this year ahead of the sale. (BizSense file)
A massive data center project is another step closer to powering up in Hanover County.
Development company Tract recently closed on the acquisition of a 1,200-acre assemblage near Ashland, where the Colorado firm intends to set the stage for dozens of data center facilities on multiple campuses.
Tract spent $32.7 million to buy the land along Hickory Hill Road east of Interstate 95 from three sellers, according to Hanover court records.
The undeveloped land was most recently assessed at a combined $7.1 million, according to online property records.
The sellers in the transfer of the six-parcel project site, which took place in several transactions in late April and early May, were Blenheim Associates, South Wales Farm LLC and Tjitse Jozef De Wolff.
The land deals followed the Board of Supervisors vote in March to approve a rezoning request needed for the project.
Tract buys and prepares properties for development as data centers. The firm plans to handle the construction of infrastructure needed for the future data centers and then sell off pieces of the assemblage to other companies, which would build their own data center facilities.
Though the Hanover site has attracted interest, Tract isn’t currently marketing its newly acquired land for sale.
“There has been inbound interest, but at this point, the land is not for sale as we are in the investment period to advance the infrastructure, roads and energy,” Tract spokesman Doug Freeman said in an email.
Freeman said Tract anticipates it will spend $50 million to $100 million to install water and sewer utilities, roads and conduct other work needed to make the property site-ready.
A conceptual plan of Tract’s planned 1,200-acre data center project. Development, which is expected to take the form of multiple campuses, would be located in the yellow areas. (BizSense file)
Tract representatives have said they expect that 10% to 12% of the project area’s acreage would be occupied by the actual data center buildings and associated facilities like substations.
Company Chief Investment Officer Graham Williams previously told BizSense he expects that the property could handle 9 million square feet of data center facilities across 30 buildings on multiple campuses. A traffic study tied to the project’s approved zoning request was based on an assumption of 46 buildings at the project site. The final scope of the development will depend on how future operators develop the site.
The development, which is expected to see its first data center facilities built as soon as 2028, is anticipated to be able to support a power capacity of 2.4 gigawatts.
Tract’s project is one of several other data center developments in the works across the Richmond region.
California-based Province Group is seeking zoning approval for a 1.5 million-square-foot data center project on 120 acres in eastern Powhatan County. In Chesterfield, data center operator Chirisa is planning new facilities at Meadowville Technology Park.
I’m planning on making a news paper idea that Powhatan County should use it’s proposed data center revenue to get it’s 100 million dollar transportation needs in order. In that if the extra ten million in funds are real. Powhatan could fix a lot of trouble making roads and get some sidewalks built considering most of Powhatan’s rejected Smart Scale projects are under ten million dollars.
Well a good start for safer roads would be eliminating alot of the left turns across US 60 that are currently unprotected. That and alot of back road intersections could use alot more roundabouts
I’ve watched the data center business explode in Loudoun County and move south into Prince William County. It bewilders me. I’ve got a good sense of nearly every commercial real estate sector, but absolutely zilch knowledge of this one. What are the factors that drive the demand and the supply? How do the developers calculate their real estate needs? What are the limiting factors by location? If I weren’t so close to retirement, I’d hop on a plane and attend a conference or two. I recommend it to aspiring brokers and developers.
The growth of the internet, the growth of technology, the growth of AI, self-driving vehicles. These all need computing power and that is no longer on your desktop, it’s in the cloud. This is the cloud being built out.
They need energy, to power them, to cool them (some need water as well). Proximity to existing fiber optic backbones help as well as the power distribution grid. NOVA is the biggest data market in the US and twice as large as the next biggest. We’re picking up the halo effect.
I’m not an expert, but it’s my understanding available data center capacity will need to be dramatically increased in the future to accommodate AI. I also know data centers require a lot of water and electricity so the proximity to Lake Anna and the power plant may be a factor.
“anticipated to be able to support a power capacity of 2.4 gigawatts“ “One gigawatt-hour (GWh) is equal to 1 million kWh. So, a power plant with a capacity of 1 GW could power approximately 876,000 households for one year” A Bing search yields the answer to the question of the number of homes 1 GWh would power for a year 876,000 x 2.4 = 2,102,400 homes. Is anyone asking if our Utility Companies have this capacity? Or are we all going to have rolling brown outs like CA? Amazon just purchased a facility which had its own nuclear power station as part… Read more »
No worries as the coming communist reset (for thee, not for me) under the guise of “climate change” will drastically reduce the energy use by the prols. Smaller rented homes and apartments, ride-sharing and less personally owned vehicles,etc. You will use less energy and you will like it.
The whole clean energy crap is a load of bs anyway. Stop listening to the big lie of “climate change” the way the left describes it. The world has always been changing and there’s nothing we can do to hurt or change that. People telling you these lies are only looking for more power over you.
I’m OK with efficiency and using less energy. That means I’m less beholden to paying other people an increasing sum every year as the cost of energy rises and fossil fuels remain volatile. Politics shouldn’t come into people having to pay less to remain comfortable. The energy the US wastes is ridiculous.
Fossil fuels are a lie too. Oil is basically the Earth’s blood if you want to be technical.
Bruce: Virginia is the data center capital of the United States because the latest transmission lines land from Europe , and South America lane in Tidewater. Henrico County was the first jurisdiction in central Virginia to recognize the value, and they landed Facebook at White Oak. This took place after the former chip plant was purchased by a savvy investor and turned into a data center. The next phase is due to AI which requires heavy data center usage. NOTE: 2.4 gigawatts of power will be needed in Hanover for the proposed data centers. That doesn’t include Chesterfield, Powhatan, or… Read more »
ChatGPT bro just got SPAC approval: nuclear energy.
An artificial sun was created in a fusion reactor in France (for 6 minutes).
Yes, but before those transmissions lines ere in place, Virginia was STILL the capital, and the majority of the internet as we know it has resided in Reston for a long time. that’s actually WHY those lines from Europe come into VA in the first place.
That’s good stuff Brian. Certainly, Henrico got in early. The Tidewater area will be hindered in its growth as a real estate sector by wetlands and rising seas. Our area is high enough in elevation to avoid that problem, like Loudoun. If you drive Routes 28 and 7 in Loudoun, the number of these are amazing. And butt-ugly! I understand the industry requires a lot of power which might make another nuclear generator like that at Lake Anna inevitable. It also requires a lot of fresh water but I don’t have a grasp on the implications for that. How will… Read more »