Virginia, lengthy thought to be the world’s main information heart market, is present process a major transition as energy constraints, zoning restrictions, and neighborhood resistance are reshaping improvement patterns throughout the state. Whereas it stays the dominant US hub for digital infrastructure, progress is starting to shift past Loudoun County towards rising markets corresponding to Prince William, Henrico, and Culpeper, in line with a DCByte report.
Loudoun County’s 2025 resolution to take away by-right zoning for information facilities marked a serious turning level for the trade. Initiatives that beforehand moved ahead mechanically now require extra approvals, slowing growth. Coupled with Dominion Vitality’s ongoing energy shortages in Northern Virginia, builders are redirecting investments to counties with extra versatile allowing and accessible land, the report notes.
Market Expands Southward
DCByte senior analyst Lilli Flynn advised DCN that the market had already begun to unfold additional south within the state because of Dominion’s energy crunch. Nonetheless, stricter zoning laws are accelerating this pattern. “Different counties, seeing overbuild in Loudoun, have applied stricter zoning guidelines themselves,” Flynn stated.
For instance, Fauquier County launched a coverage requiring a particular exception for campuses with buildings exceeding 50,000 sq. toes within the Vint Hill space. Flynn famous that neighborhood pushback has been rising steadily, with Virginia residents more and more against information facilities encroaching on residential areas or historic websites. “Because the Virginia information heart market finds its footing in counties farther from Loudoun, operators will seemingly gravitate to these with the fewest obstacles in place,” she defined.
Flynn added that operators and counties also needs to take into account neighborhood enter to keep away from overbuild and sprawl.
Culpeper: A Promising Submarket
Culpeper has emerged as one in all Virginia’s most energetic submarkets, due to its Expertise Zone (CTZ), which helps over 1 GW of potential capability tied to main gamers corresponding to AWS, CloudHQ, and DataBank. Flynn stated the CTZ units Culpeper aside by concentrating information heart improvement inside a delegated space, utilizing present infrastructure, and probably limiting sprawl. The method might result in extra environment friendly improvement timelines in comparison with counties with stricter zoning laws or inadequate transmission infrastructure.
“Knowledge facilities inside the Tech Zone are additionally at the moment eligible for tax incentives,” Flynn famous.
Outdoors of the CTZ, Culpeper can also be experiencing zoning reform, with the Culpeper Board of County Supervisors just lately passing a zoning modification that requires conditional use permits for brand new information facilities on industrially zoned land.
Vitality Provide a Persistent Problem
Regardless of ongoing grid upgrades, power provide stays probably the most essential constraint for Virginia’s information heart progress. Dominion Vitality’s contractual commitments practically doubled from 21 GW to 40 GW in 2024, reflecting sustained demand but in addition longer timelines for brand new infrastructure supply.
Flynn highlighted the rising curiosity in various power, corresponding to AWS and Dominion’s plans to develop a small modular reactor on the North Anna Energy Station in Louisa County.
Nonetheless, a number of large-scale initiatives have confronted delays or cancellations in current months because of native pushback. For instance, Tract’s 744-acre improvement in Chesterfield was withdrawn because of infrastructure issues, and AWS deserted plans for a campus in Louisa County following neighborhood resistance. In the meantime, initiatives in Fredericksburg, Prince William, and Fauquier counties have been rejected or rescinded after going through zoning challenges.
Consequently, development schedules throughout Virginia have gotten more and more longer. Builders are phasing initiatives to align with incremental energy availability whereas Dominion works to develop substations and transmission corridors.
Virginia’s Management Faces Competitors
Regardless of these challenges, Flynn believes Virginia will seemingly preserve its management place within the close to time period, due to Ashburn’s information heart hub, comparatively low prices for land and energy, sturdy connectivity, and tax incentives in place via 2035. “Nonetheless, states like Texas with a serious improvement pipeline are set to compete with Virginia for its prime spot,” she stated.
She famous that Texas has seen a surge in demand for AI workloads, with a number of multi-gigawatt campuses proposed throughout the state. “Builders need to various power to energy these campuses, like nuclear and hydrogen, and will these plans come to fruition, Texas may very well be on monitor to rival Virginia,” Flynn stated.
