Recently, Spotsylvania, Caroline, and Luisa Counties, observing the pushback from residents regarding data center development in the more heavily populated Loudon and Prince William Counties, created a policy for aggressively pursuing this type of economic development. These efforts have resulted in considerable activity in the immediate area surrounding DominionLux. The following is a brief description of some of those projects.
In 2012 the Fredericksburg area municipalities recognized tax opportunities of locating data centers in their locales. Several passed code making data development by-right in their industrial zoning areas. In 2018 the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance led an effort to further entice data development by leading the area localites to equalize their machinery and equipment taxes, so that they would not compete against one another for projects. These efforts were recognized by Amazon and the State’s economic development office. It was observed that the Fredericksburg area had a favorable tax environment and greenfield areas allowing for data to pursue large projects away from residential areas. These reasons, combined with the established data and fiber infrastructure running up from the VA beach cable landing stations, are why the Fredericksburg area now has over 20mm SF of data development either approved or proposed. Additonally, the new preferred method of data development is to do so on very large tracts, providing suitable buffering, requiring limited additonal energy infrastructure investment, and a 10 plus year runway of buildout. The first of these mega-sites is in Thornburg VA at Amazon’s MaWameade Tech Campus which will be on 1,200 acres and have 4,500,000 sf of data halls upon full buildout. MaWameade is located less than 1 mile from DominionLux.
Kalahari Resorts, a $960 million hotel, convention center, and indoor/outdoor waterpark currently under construc9on between Route 1 and Interstate 95 southwest of the Thornburg interchange. The project is expected to open in 2026.It will contain 900 rooms and have over 1.3mm sf of commercial development.
Spotsy Techno Campus, a 315 acre, 2,900,000 SF data center project located on Route 1 northwest of the Thornburg interchange. Rezoning has been approved and construction is scheduled to start in 2025.
Interchange Retail: New users coming to the interchange include Starbucks, Wendy’s and Wawa. Infrastructure Improvements: The widening of Mudd Tavern Road between Interstate 95 and Route 1 is well underway and scheduled to be completed in 2025. To further support the above data center development, new high tension electrical lines are proposed to be run west from the 500kv line in the Amazon site to the Spotsy Techno Campus. This new line will be immediately north of DominionLux.