Reports related to this article:
Project(s): View 4 related projects in PECWeb
Plant(s): View 4 related plants in PECWeb
Released August 15, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
en
Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Developers of what could be one of the world's largest data center complexes say they will appeal a Virginia county judge's decision to void the rezoning of the property where the facility would be built.
How much is too much? Northern Virginia represents the largest concentration of data centers in the world, and the influx of these facilities into the region is increasingly encroaching on rural areas and land not initially zoned for industrial facilities. While Virginia's Loudoun County perhaps represents the prime area of concentration for data centers, neighboring Prince William County is also home to several of the facilities, and residents there last week received support for their opposition to what news media were touting as the world's largest data center in the form of a judgement that vacated that zoning change that would have allowed construction. One of the data center's developers, Compass Datacenters (Dallas, Texas) said it plans to appeal the decision.
According to the Prince William County 2024 Data Center Revenue Report, as of January 1, 2024, Prince William County had 44 completed data centers and 4 million square feet of space for data centers under construction. Data centers generated $293.7 million in taxes in the 2024 tax year, a 77% increase from 2023 levels. And when county supervisors attempted to grow this revenue even more with the addition of Compass and co-developer QTS Data Centers' (Overland Park, Kansas) Digital Gateway project, which could house up to 37 buildings on 1,700 acres near the Manassas National Battlefield Park, area residents fought back.
Led by the Oak Valley Homeowners' Association, local homeowners were less than pleased when in late 2023, the county's board of supervisors rezoned to allow the massive Digital Gateway complex to be developed. A marathon 28-hour meeting about the land rezoning and the future of the project took place, with the supervisors ultimately voting 4-3 in favor of rezoning to allow the project.
However, residents were not to be stopped, and their protests against the development received a boost late last week when Circuit Court Judge Kimberly A. Irving ruled that the county had not provided appropriate notice to residents regarding the rezoning as required by law, stating the process "did not comply with either the State or County code."
But while residents celebrated a victory, the fight may not be over just yet. Compass this week said it will appeal the decision. Spokesperson Katy Hancock wrote in an email, "We are disappointed in the judge's finding that the three notices published in The Washington Post, hundreds of letters sent to property owners, and more than 150 signs posted along major roadways were deemed insufficient notice of the land-use hearing. Ultimately, more than 200 people attended and spoke at the 28-hour long hearing indicating widespread awareness. We anticipate filing an appeal to the Court of Appeals." The Digital Gateway notice of rezoning ran in the Post December 2, 5 and 9, 2023, ahead of the December 12 meeting.
QTS has not stated it will appeal, but a statement issued by the company suggests that it may not be done with Digital Gateway either, with spokesperson Karen Cohen stating, "The Prince William Board of County Supervisors previously approved this project, and this decision is delaying critical infrastructure required for American AI [artificial intelligence] as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in local annual tax revenue and thousands of new job opportunities for the county."
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
The County Board of Supervisors is determining its next course of action, although the board's membership has changed since the initial vote and the project may not receive again the narrow support it did before. One of those new members includes Board Chair Deshundra Jefferson, who was not a member during the 2023 vote but now represents an opposing voice to the project. "I was adamantly against the rezoning when I ran for office, and I am even more so now," she said in a statement. "Data centers have enabled us to expand our commercial tax base, but that has come at a high cost to other economic development and to our quality of life."
The impact on the quality of life includes substantial water and power use by data centers as well as complaints of cooling-fan noise and the general drab, utilitarian appearance of the buildings from residents near the facilities.
And while the debate over the Digital Gateway may have reached a temporary impasse, it may prove just the tip of a very large iceberg as the county's data center influx isn't expected to ease anytime soon. While the Digital Gateway project is easily the largest data center planned for the county, Industrial Info is tracking more than 40 other data center projects there that are in the planning or engineering stage, valued at more than $10 billion and representing some of the biggest names in the industry, including Amazon Web Services (Seattle, Washington) and STACK Infrastructure (Denver, Colorado). Both Google Incorporated (Mountain View, California) and Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington) are planning expansions to existing facilities within Prince William's borders. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
A late-July recommendation from the county planning commission that the board of supervisors approve yet another data center prompted continued negative feedback from residents. "How much of this stuff is enough?" asked Prince William resident Bill Wright, who has been tracking area data center applications, to WTOP News. "Western Prince William County is looking like a science fiction movie."
But the impact also is statewide. Earlier this year, Virginia's lead utility, Dominion Energy Incorporated (Richmond, Virginia), proposed a 15% statewide rate hike, in part to deal with new infrastructure and growing power demand. An NPR affiliate reports that as of December 2024, Dominion provided 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of power to data centers, enough to power about 900,000 homes, with about 40 GW of requests in hand, according to Stan Blackwell, director of Dominion's data center practice.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
How much is too much? Northern Virginia represents the largest concentration of data centers in the world, and the influx of these facilities into the region is increasingly encroaching on rural areas and land not initially zoned for industrial facilities. While Virginia's Loudoun County perhaps represents the prime area of concentration for data centers, neighboring Prince William County is also home to several of the facilities, and residents there last week received support for their opposition to what news media were touting as the world's largest data center in the form of a judgement that vacated that zoning change that would have allowed construction. One of the data center's developers, Compass Datacenters (Dallas, Texas) said it plans to appeal the decision.
According to the Prince William County 2024 Data Center Revenue Report, as of January 1, 2024, Prince William County had 44 completed data centers and 4 million square feet of space for data centers under construction. Data centers generated $293.7 million in taxes in the 2024 tax year, a 77% increase from 2023 levels. And when county supervisors attempted to grow this revenue even more with the addition of Compass and co-developer QTS Data Centers' (Overland Park, Kansas) Digital Gateway project, which could house up to 37 buildings on 1,700 acres near the Manassas National Battlefield Park, area residents fought back.
Led by the Oak Valley Homeowners' Association, local homeowners were less than pleased when in late 2023, the county's board of supervisors rezoned to allow the massive Digital Gateway complex to be developed. A marathon 28-hour meeting about the land rezoning and the future of the project took place, with the supervisors ultimately voting 4-3 in favor of rezoning to allow the project.
However, residents were not to be stopped, and their protests against the development received a boost late last week when Circuit Court Judge Kimberly A. Irving ruled that the county had not provided appropriate notice to residents regarding the rezoning as required by law, stating the process "did not comply with either the State or County code."
But while residents celebrated a victory, the fight may not be over just yet. Compass this week said it will appeal the decision. Spokesperson Katy Hancock wrote in an email, "We are disappointed in the judge's finding that the three notices published in The Washington Post, hundreds of letters sent to property owners, and more than 150 signs posted along major roadways were deemed insufficient notice of the land-use hearing. Ultimately, more than 200 people attended and spoke at the 28-hour long hearing indicating widespread awareness. We anticipate filing an appeal to the Court of Appeals." The Digital Gateway notice of rezoning ran in the Post December 2, 5 and 9, 2023, ahead of the December 12 meeting.
QTS has not stated it will appeal, but a statement issued by the company suggests that it may not be done with Digital Gateway either, with spokesperson Karen Cohen stating, "The Prince William Board of County Supervisors previously approved this project, and this decision is delaying critical infrastructure required for American AI [artificial intelligence] as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in local annual tax revenue and thousands of new job opportunities for the county."
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Industrial Manufacturing Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
The County Board of Supervisors is determining its next course of action, although the board's membership has changed since the initial vote and the project may not receive again the narrow support it did before. One of those new members includes Board Chair Deshundra Jefferson, who was not a member during the 2023 vote but now represents an opposing voice to the project. "I was adamantly against the rezoning when I ran for office, and I am even more so now," she said in a statement. "Data centers have enabled us to expand our commercial tax base, but that has come at a high cost to other economic development and to our quality of life."
The impact on the quality of life includes substantial water and power use by data centers as well as complaints of cooling-fan noise and the general drab, utilitarian appearance of the buildings from residents near the facilities.
And while the debate over the Digital Gateway may have reached a temporary impasse, it may prove just the tip of a very large iceberg as the county's data center influx isn't expected to ease anytime soon. While the Digital Gateway project is easily the largest data center planned for the county, Industrial Info is tracking more than 40 other data center projects there that are in the planning or engineering stage, valued at more than $10 billion and representing some of the biggest names in the industry, including Amazon Web Services (Seattle, Washington) and STACK Infrastructure (Denver, Colorado). Both Google Incorporated (Mountain View, California) and Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, Washington) are planning expansions to existing facilities within Prince William's borders. Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Project Database can learn more by viewing the related project reports.
A late-July recommendation from the county planning commission that the board of supervisors approve yet another data center prompted continued negative feedback from residents. "How much of this stuff is enough?" asked Prince William resident Bill Wright, who has been tracking area data center applications, to WTOP News. "Western Prince William County is looking like a science fiction movie."
But the impact also is statewide. Earlier this year, Virginia's lead utility, Dominion Energy Incorporated (Richmond, Virginia), proposed a 15% statewide rate hike, in part to deal with new infrastructure and growing power demand. An NPR affiliate reports that as of December 2024, Dominion provided 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of power to data centers, enough to power about 900,000 homes, with about 40 GW of requests in hand, according to Stan Blackwell, director of Dominion's data center practice.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
