Developer proposes Henrico industrial park after resistance to data centers

After resistance to a data center campus in eastern Henrico County, a developer appears to be pivoting to an industrial park proposal.

Plans filed with the county last week for the 195-acre site on 2248 Darbytown Road show seven industrial buildings totaling more than 1.82 million square feet. The buildings for the proposed Airport West Industrial Campus are of varying sizes, with the largest occupying 635,400 square feet.

Wagner Urban Logistics, alternatively known as Centra Logistics, previously sought to put eight 231,603-square-foot data centers on the eastern Henrico site that sits near the Fareva and Mondelez International properties.

The application was filed in April, entering the county planning process. But, in June, the Henrico Board of Supervisors adopted an amendment creating new data center regulations. Hyperscale data center projects are no longer a by-right use in the county and now must get provisional use permits.

Wagner Urban Logistics applied for a provisional use permit. Henrico’s planning commission recommended denying the application in September, and the company later withdrew it.

The developer then pursued a vested rights claim. Under Virginia law, a landowner’s rights are vested in a land use and unaffected by subsequent zoning ordinances under certain conditions. R. Joseph “Joe” Emerson, the county’s planning director, denied the claim in a letter dated Dec. 10. Emerson and the county attorney determined that Wagner didn’t meet the conditions for vested rights under the Code of Virginia, according to the letter, citing a lack of “a significant affirmative governmental act” and a lack of reliance on good faith from such an act.

The letter also said the Code of Virginia provision for vested rights applies to landowners. At the time, Fareva Richmond was the landowner, not Wagner.

Wagner has the right to appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals within 30 days of the determination. Andrew Condlin, an attorney for the company, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The Darbytown Road site is zoned for industrial use. The county planning director has 60 days, with a few exceptions, to act on a plan of development once a complete application is submitted.

Darbytown Road LLC purchased the site for $13.5 million on Nov. 14 from Fareva Richmond, part of French pharmaceutical, industrial and cosmetics company Fareva.