Amazon Planning 1,370-Acre Virginia Data Center Campus
Amazon Web Services has proposed a campus with more than 7.2M SF of data center space in the small, rural community of Louisa County, Virginia.
AWS plans to build four initial data centers at the site, with three further phases of construction expected at the 1,370-acre property, according to filings with county officials first reported by the Engage Louisa newsletter.
No development timeline was provided for the campus, which is Amazon's third planned project in Louisa County and one of the largest such developments in the booming Richmond-area data center market.
While the power capacity of AWS’ latest Louisa campus wasn't provided in the company’s proposal, the firm indicated plans for the construction of seven electrical substations on the property, built in conjunction with Dominion Energy and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative. Based on prior AWS projects, the number of substations suggests the campus could ultimately house close to a gigawatt of capacity or more.
In addition to the data center buildings, AWS’ filings indicate the property may also include water and sewage treatment facilities, a telecommunications tower, offices, and other supporting services like dining and security. The development site, a tract used for timber production just north of the Northeast Creek Reservoir, sits in a sector of central Louisa County specifically zoned to attract data center development.
Louisa County, whose entire population could fit inside D.C.'s Nationals Park, had no data center development at all until 2023, when Amazon announced it was investing $11B to build a pair of campuses in the county’s Technology Overlay District.
Those campuses are now in development. One will total 1.7M SF of data center space on 173 acres, while the larger of the two projects is expected to house 10 data centers on a 374-acre site.
Amazon’s latest Louisa campus joins a growing list of large-scale data center projects flooding into Richmond and its surrounding counties.
Amazon has pitched a 1,143-acre campus in Caroline County, while data center developer Tract has proposed a 1,211-acre project in Hanover County. Last week, officials in Chesterfield County approved rezoning for a pair of campuses totaling more than 1,300 acres.
