Local officials have given the green light to a new data center campus outside Richmond in Powhatan County, Virginia.
California-based Province Group filed to develop on 119.9 acres of land, currently undeveloped, at the Ellis Farm site north of US Route 60, in May 2024. The firm had filed to rezone the land at 1318 Page Road in Midlothian from Agriculture 10 (A10) to Light Industrial (I-1).
As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Powhatan County supervisors this week approved the proposal, voting 3-2 in favor to grant a conditional use permit. The county Planning Commission had recommended to deny the request in August.
The campus will consist of three data center buildings, each reaching a height of 75 feet. In total, 1.5 million sq ft (139,355 sqm) of floor space will be developed. Filings suggest the campus would total 300MW at full build-out; the site is close to a Dominion transmission line.
The site’s owners, Harold and Christina Ellis, had previously filed to turn the property into a mixed-use development with up to 249 detached houses and townhomes, but this was rejected in 2019. A scaled-down proposal for 180 houses and a 300,000-square-foot industrial building and a restaurant was eventually not pursued.
Province was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Newport Beach, California. It claims to have developed, renovated, acquired, or entitled more than 75 projects with a combined value of more than $850 million.
According to its website, the company has developed commercial and residential projects in its home state as well as in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Washington, and Hawaii.
Powhatan County is located directly west of Richmond. While Northern Virginia is the data center capital of the world, the Richmond area is also home to a number of projects. Other data center developments that have recently been proposed around the Richmond area include the 2.4GW Tract data center on 1,200 acres in Hanover County for which zoning has been approved. Chirisa is also planning additional data centers at Meadowville Technology Park in Chesterfield.
