Dive Brief:
- Dublin-based data center developer Chirisa is planning to build a new facility in Chesterfield, Virginia’s Meadowville Technology Park. The 139,000-square-foot facility will have a 20-megawatt capacity initially, and that number is expected to eventually double to 40 megawatts.
- The project is on track to be at least a $240 million investment: Chirisa Managing Director Lee Hayes told Richmond Biz Sense that the company anticipates it costs about $12 million per megawatt to build data centers in the Richmond market.
- DPR Construction is the general contractor for the project, according to the site plan filed with Chesterfield County.
Dive Insight:
Per the site plan, Dallas-based Gensler is the project’s architect and Richmond, Virginia-headquartered Timmons Group was tapped to handle civil engineering for the new building. If permission is granted for the project to move ahead, construction is slated to be completed in late 2025. DPR declined to comment on the project.
The new data center will complement Chirisa’s existing 242,000-square-foot facility at Meadowville Technology Park, which was formerly owned by Capital One. It is currently being upgraded to 18 megawatts from its current 6 megawatt capacity and work on the upgrade is expected to be finished in June, according to Data Center Dynamics.
Chirisa is also seeking to build a third data center at the technology park on the 300,000-square-foot site of an unfinished industrial project at 1600 Digital Drive. It was supposed to be a factory for Mexican packaging firm Cartograf, but has been stuck in legal limbo for several years and was recently subject to a court-ordered sale.
Virginia’s hot data center market
An estimated 70% of the world’s internet traffic travels through northern Virginia’s Fairfax and Loudoun counties, earning the area the nickname “Data Center Alley.” Decades of government and private investment in the area, as well as abundant access to land, water and workers, make the region an attractive spot for major companies to set up their data centers.
Recent projects in the area include a $242 million, 250,000-square-foot facility that Skanska is constructing for an undisclosed client. Clark Construction Group is building a 24-megawatt data center in Ashburn, Virginia, for NTT, a Japanese IT infrastructure and services company.
Amazon has invested heavily in the area. Last year, Amazon Web Services said it is building a 250,000-square-foot data center across three buildings in Manassas, Virginia, according to InsideNova. The company also filed plans in Sterling, Virginia, to demolish nine office buildings across three sites to create space for four data center facilities, according to Loudon County land applications accessed by Construction Dive.
