Culpeper tech zone attracts data centers

A Dallas-based developer seeking to build its fourth data center campus in Virginia had a problem.

Finding sites large enough was getting difficult in Northern Virginia, where DataBank has two locations in Ashburn’s Data Center Alley and one in McLean.

“Virginia is still a solid data center market,” says DataBank Chief Operating Officer Joe Minarik. “We looked around and said, ‘Hey, where’s expansion still growing and land [still] available?’”

DataBank found 85 acres where it plans to break ground by early 2025 in the 690-acre Culpeper Technology Zone (CTZ). It offers access to fiber, electricity, incentives and workforce training.

“Culpeper tipped the scale for our ability to get there,” Minarik says. “And it’s already starting to develop. You’re seeing other data center providers grow theirs there.”

Those include Peterson Cos., Cielo Digital Infrastructure, CloudHQ and Copper Ridge. Additionally, Red Ace Capital Management received county approval July 2 to locate in the zone.

Culpeper County created the CTZ in 2021 to consolidate data center development in one place, streamlining power needs and curtailing expansion elsewhere. Developers who invest $10 million and hire at least 10 new employees there get a tax rebate of 40% over a five-year period, says Bryan Rothamel, Culpeper’s economic development director.

Also located in the CTZ are the Culpeper Technical Education Center and the Daniel Technology Center, offering trades and IT training relevant to building and maintaining data centers.

DataBank plans to build three facilities totaling 1.4 million square feet in the CTZ, with the first coming online around 2027 or 2028. It’ll need hundreds of workers to build them, and then 50 to 60 people to manage each building. Tenants will bring their own IT staff. Having nearby schools provide workforce training is a plus, Minarik says.

The CTZ also ticked boxes for Peterson Cos., a Fairfax-based real estate developer with 10 other data center projects. The zone’s ordinance anticipates the needs of data centers, and the CTZ isn’t near schools and dense residential development, so developers face less opposition, says Adam Cook, Peterson’s managing director of development.

Peterson won approval in 2023 to build eight data centers totaling over 2.05 million square feet on 150 acres there.

“Staff members and elected officials have listened to their community and preserved the rural nature of their community, while still making space for data centers,” Cook says. “It’s really a tribute to fantastic leadership.”