Amazon Scraps Virginia Data Center After Pushback
Amazon has dropped plans for a data center campus in Virginia after fierce community pushback. The 120-acre Ashburn site becomes housing and mixed-use instead.
Amazon is walking away from a plan to build a data center campus in Virginia's Loudoun County, the densest data center hub on the planet. On Tuesday, the company agreed to withdraw its application after months of pushback from residents, students and county officials - and to give up any legal fight to build data centers on the site. The 120-acre property it bought for $427 million will instead become housing, shops and community facilities.
The $427M site at the center of the fight
Amazon bought the 120-acre George Washington University Virginia Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn earlier this year for $427 million. Its plan, called the Bridgefield Tech Center, called for four data center buildings totaling 800,000 square feet, plus parking garages and new electrical infrastructure. The proposal drew swift opposition from local residents, GW students and an increasingly anti-data center county board.
What the deal includes
Under the agreement, announced Tuesday by Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall alongside AWS vice president Josh Weissman, Amazon will withdraw its data center application and "forego any legal action" to build data centers on the property. The company will donate 25 acres of the land, valued at around $65 million, to the county for a community arts center and indoor sports facility. The rest of the site will be rezoned for mixed-use development, mostly housing at both market and attainable rates, and Amazon will contribute $5 million to the county's housing fund. The deal also lets the university stay on the property for up to five years while it relocates.
A wider backlash against AI data centers
The pullback fits a broader US backlash against data center growth, driven by fears that AI computing infrastructure is draining local water and power. Loudoun County, home to the world's highest concentration of data centers, voted in September to place a one-year moratorium on new developments. Last year it also ended by-right zoning for data centers, forcing every new project through a special approval process. Randall said her goal was to "disallow any data centers or infrastructure that could support data centers on this property." Weissman said Amazon had heard the community's concerns and took them seriously.
What happens next
County officials will now move to rezone the land for mixed-use development under a deal they are calling "Project Potomac Promise." U.S. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, whose district includes the area, said residents must come first and called for more transparency around data center impacts. Amazon's development chief admitted the company probably would not have bought the property for that purpose in hindsight. For the data center industry, the message from the world's biggest hub is clear: community consent can no longer be taken for granted.
Sources
Washington Examiner - https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/technology/4774139/loudoun-county-scrap-amazon-data-center-plan/ Bisnow - https://www.bisnow.com/news/national/data-center-development/amazon-ditches-ashburn-data-center-plans-mixed-use-development Data Center Dynamics - https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/amazon-withdraws-application-for-data-center-campus-at-gwu-site-in-ashburn-virginia/