The Red Ace Data Center campus has been approved for rezoning by the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors in Virginia.
Also known as the Keyser Road Data Center, the applicant has received approval for the rezoning of 69.19 acres from Rural to Light Industrial on farmland along Nalles Mill Road and Keyser Road.
Red Ace Capital Management - the company behind the project - plans to develop two four-story 290,000 sq ft (26,942 sqm) data centers totaling 1.16m sq ft (148,645 sqm) as well as an electrical substation and associated equipment on the parcel.
The project is expected to require an investment of $350 million and is not due to be completed until 2028.
In June, the Board of Supervisors decided to temporarily table the proposal, however it was revisited on July 2.
The vote for rezoning was split - with four Supervisors in favor and three against - reports the Culpeper Star-Exponent. Yes-voters included Supervisors Gary Deal, David Durr, Susan Gugino, and Tom Underwood, while those opposed were Chairman Paul Bates and Supervisors David Lee and Brad Rosenberger.
The Red Ace Data Center campus is the sixth to be approved in Culpeper's Technology Zone in the last few years. The development alone is expected to bring between $14m and $19m in annual tax revenue to the county in business personal property taxes.
Current land-owner Paul Keyser encouraged the Supervisors to approve the rezoning.
“It’s just different. We have an opportunity to move on, buy other properties,” said Keyser. “I believe it is my family’s right to do whatever we want with our land."
In addition, the land lies within the Technology Zone - areas where Culpeper County is concentrating its data center developments.
Supervisor Susan Gugino, while voting in favor of the Red Ace development, has said that this will be the last such project she approves, noting that the Technology Zone is now full.
At the Tuesday meeting, several local residents raised concerns about the development, including noise, water and power consumption, and the impact on natural resources surrounding it.
Culpeper County, located to the southwest of data center hotspot Loudoun County, has seen several data center proposals. Among those projects are a Cielo data center campus expected to span 1.4 million sq ft (130,065 sqm) also along Nalles Mill Road, a DataBank facility expected to comprise three two-story buildings spanning 1.4 million sq ft (130,065 sqm), and a nine-building campus from Peterson Companies. Culpeper County also approved four million sq ft (371,610 sqm) of rezoning requests around McDevitt Drive at the request of TPC Culpeper LC and TPC Freedom I LC in May 2023.
An Amazon data center is also under construction along Route 3 in Stevensburg, Culpeper County, having received approval in April 2022.
