Leesburg becomes hub for data centers

By Audrey Carpenter

Digging has started at the Compass Creek retail center in Leesburg for what will become over the next two years two data centers located between the Ion International Training Center and the existing Microsoft campus.

One 387,300-square-foot data center and a second building with 222,000 square feet for data center and office space use will be built north of the two existing Microsoft data centers – known as IAD01-1 and IAD01-2, which were built between 2019-2021. 

The new, two-story data centers will sit directly across from Walmart and the Leesburg Executive Airport. STACK Infrastructure is building the data centers and has not disclosed who the user will be, though there are Microsoft references in County site plans. Construction on the first of the two data centers is expected to be completed by late 2024. 

In March, the Leesburg Town Council approved an agreement to provide water and sewer service to the data centers. “We have the available capacity in our utility system to serve more data center development and consider the data center industry an evolving part of our business community,” said Leesburg Mayor Kelly Burk in an email.

However, the utility service would only be used for office-type use and not incorporated into the data center cooling systems, the Town Council determined during a March meeting to review utility service and expansion needs.

Meanwhile, TA Realty, a Boston-based real estate investment firm, announced last month that it has signed a lease with a Cloud provider for its data center campus located near Panda Stonewall Energy Plant in Leesburg.

The site is located on the east side of Sycolin Road and is bound by Cochran Mill Road to the north and Energy Park Drive. Construction of the first building is set to begin in 2023/2024 with build-out through 2027. 

The Cloud provider will lease all five buildings, composed of 1.9 million square feet, as part of a 430 MW (megawatt) build-to-suit agreement for its entire data center campus. 

TA Realty said the unnamed tenant selected the campus due to its scale, power, and location. The site is adjacent to the energy plant and an existing substation.

Also, Chuck Kuhn, president of JK Land Holdings LLC, is seeking County approval to build three data centers and two warehouses on roughly 112 acres it owns in Leesburg on Cochran Mill Road, according to his website: https://www.jklandholdings.net/jklh-announces-site-plan-for-leesburg-industrial-area.

The land previously had a dump truck dispatch operation, as well as an asphalt plant and concrete plant. It is located north of where Goose Creek meets Sycolin Creek, and sits west of where Cochran Mill Road intersects with Washington & Old Dominion Trail and east of Durham Court, per the land application.

“As of now, the 3rd submission review for this site plan is underway,” said Buddy Riser, executive director of Loudoun County Economic Development. 

Kuhn has said he would like to immediately start construction if his application is approved. It is unknown whether a tenant has been selected for the data centers and warehouses.

The County has 115 data centers to date.