Amazon drops its data center plan for GW’s former Ashburn campus in a deal with Loudoun

By Staff Reporter

ASHBURN, Va. — Amazon has agreed to drop its plan to build four data centers on George Washington University’s former Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn and to seek a rezoning of the 122-acre property for housing and community uses instead, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis J. Randall announced Tuesday.

Under the agreement, which the county is calling “Project Potomac Promise,” Amazon will give the county about 25 acres fronting Route 7, valued at about $65 million, for a community arts center and an indoor sports facility, and will contribute $5 million to the county’s Housing Fund, WTOP reported, citing the county’s release. The rest of the campus would be rezoned for mixed-use development with housing as the predominant use, in a district that bars data centers and related infrastructure even by special exception, Virginia Business reported.

“Through our collaborative conversations, Amazon has agreed to withdraw its proposed application and — of note — forego any legal action to realize data center development on this site,” Randall said in a statement Tuesday evening, published in full by Blue Virginia.

What Amazon had planned

Amazon bought the campus from the university earlier this year for about $427 million, and its proposal, known as Bridgefield Tech Center, called for four two-story data center buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet, according to Virginia Business and The GW Hatchet. The university can remain on the property as a tenant for up to five years while it relocates programs, the Hatchet reported.

The plan ran into trouble almost immediately. Supervisor Juli E. Briskman, whose Algonkian District includes the campus, vowed to fight it “every step of the way,” and county economic development director Buddy Rizer said in March that the county had never anticipated data centers there, Virginia Business reported.

The dispute turned on zoning. The campus lies in the Route 28 Tax District, where a 1972 ordinance still governs, and a 2000 county determination had treated data centers as office uses that could be built by right. In July, county Zoning Administrator Teresa H. Miller issued an opinion that the 2000 interpretation was obsolete, according to Virginia Business. County records also show that about 50 acres carry a 1990 deed restriction limiting them to university use, and that the county rejected Amazon’s first site plan in August, WUSA9 reported.

“While we see the property’s legal development potential differently than the county does, we concluded that the best outcome for all is to come together on a shared vision for this campus rather than engage in costly litigation,” Josh Weissman, Amazon’s vice president for data center capacity delivery, said in a statement quoted by Virginia Business.

A fast track, and one vote against it

Supervisors voted 8-1 on Tuesday to expedite Amazon’s rezoning application, WUSA9 reported. Leesburg District Supervisor Kristen Umstattd cast the lone no vote. “I worry about the cost of residential, since houses consume more in services than they pay in taxes,” she said, according to WTOP.

Dulles District Supervisor Matt Letourneau said the vote did not commit the board to approving the rezoning or to any number of homes. “Expedited does not mean there won’t be a process,” he said, noting the application still goes to the Planning Commission and must include traffic and environmental studies, WTOP reported.

Briskman welcomed the outcome but said she would not be confident until the data center application is formally withdrawn. “I sort of feel like that is being held over us in a way,” she told WUSA9. Amazon has said it will withdraw the application by the end of the month, and Randall said even a fast-tracked rezoning could take about a year, the station reported. The donated land passes to the county only after the rezoning is complete, Randall told WUSA9.

An Amazon spokesperson told Virginia Business that the number and mix of homes, the project’s cost and its timeline have not been set and will be shaped by the rezoning process.

The wider fight over data centers

The deal comes as Loudoun, which has about 260 data centers built or in the pipeline, debates how far to go in restricting new ones. On the same day, the board put off until Nov. 17 a vote on a proposed 12-month pause on data center and substation rezonings, as The Inquisitor reported. Randall told WUSA9 that data center revenue makes up 45% of the county’s budget, “which quite frankly is too high.”

Randall said the county will hold design charrettes and town halls on the site’s future. Amazon also said Loudoun will be a focus community in 2027 for its “Built Together” program, which will cover community college tuition and fees for students training in fields such as the electrical trades and HVAC, WTOP reported.

The Inquisitor asked Loudoun County’s Office of Public Affairs and Communications, the county’s Department of Economic Development, Briskman’s office, Amazon and the Piedmont Environmental Council about the timing of the withdrawal, the rezoning schedule and the deed restriction. This story will be updated with any responses.

Photo: Data centers among commercial buildings near Ashburn, in Loudoun County. Theodore Christopher / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 1.0.