$1 billion data center campus moves forward in Pittsylvania

With more than 70% of global internet traffic flowing through Virginia data centers — mostly in Loudoun County — the commonwealth is the world’s undisputed data center capital. And Tom Gallagher’s development group wants Pittsylvania County to claim a stake in that action.

Gallagher represents Anchorstone Advisors SOVA, the developer planning to build a potential $1 billion-plus data center campus on a 946-acre tract in Ringgold. During its July 16 meeting, the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to rezone the tract for heavy industrial use to allow for the project. Construction could begin on the project’s first phase by mid-2025 to early 2026.

Currently, the only hyperscale data center campus in Southern Virginia is the 1.1-million-square-foot Microsoft data center complex in Boydton, about an hour east in Mecklenburg County.

“I think it’s a golden opportunity for [Pittsylvania] to get in on the game,” says Gallagher, who is also a principal in a $550 million mixed-use development proposed for Pittsylvania’s Axton area.

No tenant has been announced for the data center campus yet, but Pittsylvania’s economic development director, Matt Rowe, hopes Anchorstone’s project will be “the tip of the spear” for attracting more data centers southward.

“We recognize there’s tremendous opportunity for Southern Virginia when it comes to attracting hyperscale data centers,” Rowe says. “Northern Virginia is pretty much tapped out from a power standpoint [and] from a land standpoint, so we … become the next best option,” due to the region’s available land, low tax rates and proximity to subsea high-speed internet cables in Hampton Roads and QTS’s network access point in Henrico County.

“Counties like ours need the types of direct [tax] revenue that come from these projects,” says Rowe, “and we have the available land mass and space where they can do it at scale without impacting a lot of adjacent property owners.”

That said, some residents did express concerns to the county about potential increases in traffic, light and noise that might come from Anchorstone’s data center campus, which is expected to receive its data center use permit from the county Board of Zoning Appeals by year’s end.

Anchorstone has agreed to comply with county noise ordinances and to reduce light pollution, says Gallagher, noting that the campus also will have direct access to U.S. Route 58, so it won’t impact residential roads. “Most [residents] won’t even know it’s there.”