Amazon withdraws Ashburn data center application after Loudoun talks

Amazon has withdrawn its application to develop a data center campus on the George Washington University Science and Technology Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, Data Center Dynamics reported. The move ends a planned four-building, 800,000 sq ft (74,320 sqm) project called Bridgefield Tech Center on 122 acres the company bought in March for $427 million. Amazon Data Services acquired the site on a five-year sale-leaseback that gave GWU time to relocate, so the withdrawal removes the data center entitlement rather than the ownership.

The agreement, which Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair Phyllis Randall described in a social media post as "Project Potomac Promise," followed meetings between Amazon and the county attorney and administrator "over many weeks," she said.

Amazon will dedicate roughly 25 acres of the site to the county, land valued at around $65 million, and give $5 million to the county's housing fund. It also committed to rezone the remainder for mixed use and residential development, including attainable and market-rate housing. Randall said the 25-acre parcels were "ideal" for a new Community Arts Center and Indoor Sports Facility. Measured against the dedication, the 25 acres handed over work out to about $2.6 million an acre.

She said her aim had been to "disallow any data centers or infrastructure that could support data centers on this property," and that Amazon had agreed to "forego any legal action to realize data center development on this site."

Data Center Dynamics reported the proposal drew opposition from local residents and students, and from what it described as an increasingly anti-data center county board. Earlier in October, county staff told the board Amazon would need additional county approval before starting any data center work, citing a zoning determination that data centers were not permitted on the property.

The site arrived with a university campus, not a substation. This publication has previously described Blackstart Digital's deal for IBM's Almaden campus and its 25MW substation as a purchase of a data center site with existing power and permits. Amazon's Loudoun parcel had the opposite profile.

Josh Weissman, Amazon's vice president for data center capacity delivery, said the company "moved to seize this opportunity when approached by the University about a sale," but that "as we heard the community's pointed concerns about data center development at this particular site, we took them seriously." He said more than 3,400 Amazon employees live in Loudoun County, where the company has been building for 20 years.