Developer Pitches $3B Data Center Campus Near Richmond

A California developer is seeking permission to build a 1.5M SF data center project in Powhatan County, Virginia, the latest in a wave of major data center campuses proposed near Richmond. 

Newport Beach, California-based Province Group has submitted applications with Powhatan County officials to build the campus on 120 undeveloped acres north of U.S. Route 60. The plan, first reported by Richmond BizSense, calls for three 74-foot-tall buildings.

The overall investment in the campus will reportedly total $3B, with half of that investment going toward building out the facility and the remainder spent on equipment. 

While the total capacity of the data centers planned for the site hasn't been reported, the power would be supplied by Dominion Energy. The utility said that it will expand a substation in the area and develop a new substation with transmission lines directly to the campus. 

For the project to move forward, county officials need to approve zoning changes for the three parcels that make up the site, all of which are zoned for agricultural use. The Powhatan County Planning Department is reviewing the project application, with a tentative date for a decision set for June 4. 

This isn't the first time a developer has proposed a large-scale project on the site. Local officials in 2019 rejected a planned mixed-use development from Virginia firm EastWest that would have placed 249 houses and commercial buildings on the property. A scaled-down version of the project that was subsequently floated also failed. 

Province Group primarily develops residential, mixed-use and commercial properties in its home state of California, as well as Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Washington and Hawaii, according to its website. The company doesn't list any previous data center projects, nor are data centers — or any light industrial — named among the project types the firm pursues. 

While Powhatan County hasn't been a destination for large-scale data centers, Province Group’s project joins a wave of major digital infrastructure developments flooding into the Richmond area. 

Last week, developer Tract proposed a 2.4-gigawatt campus on 1,200 acres in nearby Hanover County. In April, Potomac Development Group unveiled plans for an estimated 9M SF of data center space in King George County, where Amazon is already developing a $6B data center campus. Chirisa also proposed a 20 MW campus in Chesterfield County last month.