The campus network room in the Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The tech giant is planning a data center project in Chesterfield. (Courtesy Google)
Nearly five years after quietly buying hundreds of acres in Chesterfield, Google has revealed big plans for the property.
The tech giant intends to building a data center facility on a 300-plus acre site at 2700 Bermuda Hundred Road near Meadowville Technology Park. The project was announced in collaboration with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office at an event held Wednesday morning.
The Chesterfield project comes as part of a $9 billion investment by Google in its Virginia operations, an initiative that includes expansions of existing facilities in Prince William and Loudoun counties. Google said the investments to be made through 2026 would expand the company’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Google didn’t share details on the scope or construction timeline of the local project, which is slated to rise on land that the company bought from the Chesterfield Economic Development Authority for $18.1 million in 2020. At the time, it wasn’t clear that the purchasing entity, Peanut LLC, was tied to Google.
Construction is anticipated to start by the end of the year, Google spokeswoman Amber Tillman said in an interview with BizSense. The typical Google data center takes 18 to 24 months to construct. The site is already zoned for such as project.
The initial Chesterfield facility would consist of one building with an undisclosed square footage. Tillman said would be the first phase of development on what would be a multi-phase campus.
Google wouldn’t comment on the cost of the local facility or it’s megawatt capacity.
A general contractor has been selected for the project, though Tillman declined to name the firm.
Youngkin and Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat shared remarks at Wednesday morning’s event, which was held at Brightpoint Community College’s Chester campus.
The announcement follows a recent power-purchase agreement struck between Google and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, in which Google would buy half of the electricity generated by a 400-megawatts nuclear fusion power plant that CFS plans to build on a site about six miles away from the site of Google’s planned Chesterfield facility.
The Chesterfield Planning Commission recently recommended approval of the requested conditional-use permit needed for the CFS power plant, which would be built at 1201 Battery Brooke Parkway.
Initial moves toward the construction of the Google facility in Chesterfield are already underway. In early June, a site plan was received by Chesterfield for mass grading work for what was described in documents as a “confidential” project at Google’s Bermuda Hundred property. The filings didn’t offer insight into the specs of the planned data center project. The plans were under review by county staff this week.
Google’s announcement also comes amid other data-center development action in the region and at a time when such projects are under increased scrutiny in certain localities.
Earlier this year, the Chesterfield EDA successfully secured zoning approval for data center projects on two sites, one near Moseley and the other near Westchester Commons. Skyward Holdings and Aeris Investments, which are LLCs involved in the code-named plans to build the proposed data center campuses on the properties, recently bought the assemblages for nearly $60 million.
Meanwhile, Denver developer Tract pulled a proposal for a data center project near Chester following the Chesterfield Planning Commission’s move to recommend denial of the project. In Charles City County, Kansas-based Diode Ventures this month spiked a proposed data center project following public push back.
This is breaking news. Stay tuned to BizSense for more details on this story.
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