Construction of a data center in the region is already underway

This data center campus is under construction on Old Potomac Church Road, south of Stafford Hospital. It is one of the first data center projects in the region, but many more are in the works.

Construction is underway on the first two data center campuses in the Fredericksburg area, and much more activity is expected in the coming years.

Currently, most local data center construction activity is concentrated in two locations:

• The area east of U.S. Route 1 and south of Hospital Center Boulevard in Stafford County. A 510,000-square-foot data center campus is currently under construction on Old Potomac Church Road, not far from the Abberly Waterstone Apartment Homes complex. Just south of there, following a successful rezoning in September, a data center campus with a building area of ​​up to 5.8 million square meters is planned.
• The area east of Interstate 95 and south of US Route 17 in Spotsylvania County. A data center campus is under construction on Cosner Drive, and significant additional activity is in the works along Massaponax Church Road and Summit Crossing Road. Another large campus (a project called Mattameade Tech Campus) is planned for land south of Mudd Tavern Road, straddling the Caroline County/Spotsylvania line.

According to an interview with Fredericksburg Regional Alliance President Curry Roberts and Hirschler attorney Charlie Payne, who has represented many data center projects in the siting process, the cluster of data center sites in the region is no coincidence.

The clusters are located along key transmission lines, which will meet the large electricity needs of campuses. They are located in areas without significant residential density and with enough available space to develop numerous data center buildings, substations and other necessary facilities. The proximity to each other also allows for the sharing of non-potable water distribution lines – currently under development – ​​that can be used to cool the facilities (these systems are referred to as “purple pipes”).

Roberts and Payne said significant additional local data center activity is expected in the coming years, including on the west side of U.S. 1 and Interstate 95, as transmission lines are built. There is strong interest in data center sites along Centerport Parkway in Stafford and in areas near Massaponax High School in Spotsylvania.

Payne and Roberts said there could be up to 50 million square feet of data centers in the Fredericksburg region within a decade, providing significant tax revenue to host communities. Roberts said studies have shown that for every 1 million square feet of data centers built, about $19 million in local tax revenue is generated annually (mostly through personal property taxes on data center equipment). This means that data centers will likely be one of, if not the largest, sources of local tax revenue in the coming years.

They are also likely to be one of the largest consumers of electricity.

Currently, the majority of local data center activity occurs in Caroline, Stafford and Spotsylvania. A project near the former Birchwood Power Facility in King George County is currently stalled. The city of Fredericksburg is studying the feasibility of data centers on the Hylton properties (at the northeast corner of State Route 3 and Interstate 95) and Celebrate Virginia South (the vacant lot on Gordon W. Shelton Boulevard).

Roberts and Payne said local data center activity has been underway for a decade. Demand for data centers is booming given the shift to cloud computing and the increasingly massive computing needs of artificial intelligence.

Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the world, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find enough space in places like Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun counties – which has led data center operators to look beyond regions like Fauquier, Louisa, Culpeper and Fredericksburg . In the late 2010s, regional and local economic developers began meeting with data center operators. Caroline, King George, Stafford, Spotsylvania and Fredericksburg all agreed to set the same personal property tax rate for data center equipment to level the playing field.

Many of the local projects are led by Amazon Web Services, although other data center operators are also in the market, Roberts and Payne said. Roberts said local data centers will need more skilled workers (electricians, cybersecurity specialists, plumbers, HVAC technicians, mechanics, etc.) than the region currently has. He said Germanna Community College is working to develop employee training programs specifically tailored to the needs of the industry.

Bill Freehling covers local business for the Fredericksburg Free Press. He can be reached at: [email protected].

Editor’s note: Hirschler Fleischer is a major donor to the Free Press. Donors have no influence on the operations of the newsroom.