Key points
- Amazon drops a four-building data center plan
- Loudoun County would receive 25 acres and $5 million
- Loudoun weighs delaying data center approval votes
Amazon (AMZN) won't build data centers on the former George Washington University campus in Ashburn, Virginia, that it bought this year for $427 million. Instead, Amazon will give Loudoun County about 25 acres of the site, which the county values at about $65 million, and $5 million for its affordable housing trust fund.
Loudoun County Board Chair Phyllis Randall announced the agreement on October 20 and named it Project Potomac Promise. Amazon will withdraw its data center site plan and won't take legal action to pursue data center development on the property, Fortune reported. The county plans to use the 25 acres along Route 7 for a community arts center and an indoor sports facility. The remaining land on the roughly 120-acre campus is slated for mixed-use development, primarily housing.
That would replace Amazon's July proposal for four two-story data center buildings totaling more than 800,000 square feet.
Amazon and the county disagreed over development rights
"While we see the property's legal development potential differently than the County does, we concluded that the best outcome for all is to come together on a shared vision for this campus rather than engage in costly litigation," Josh Weissman, Amazon's vice president for data center delivery, said in a statement. He said Amazon heard "the community's pointed concerns about data center development at this particular site" and took them seriously.
"My goal was to disallow data centers or infrastructure that could support data centers on this property," Randall said.
George Washington University announced the sale in February without naming the buyer. The GW Hatchet, the student newspaper, identified Amazon Data Services as the buyer in March. The price was roughly four times the property's assessed value. Algonkian District Supervisor Juli Briskman had opposed the plan. "Replacing the George Washington University campus with four massive data center buildings would be a profound loss for our community," she said.
Loudoun County weighs delaying votes on data centers
Loudoun County had about 233 data center buildings, built or under construction, as of March 1. Data centers are a major source of county funding. They generated $1.2 billion in property taxes in fiscal 2026. When County Administrator Tim Hemstreet proposed that year's budget, he said data centers generated 38% of General Fund revenue, which pays for core county services, and nearly half of all property tax revenue.
The county ended by-right data center zoning last year, so new projects need a special exception from the Board of Supervisors.
On September 15, the board voted to consider a resolution that would delay its final votes on data center and substation applications that need its approval, for up to 12 months. Developers could still file applications, and those applications could still move through the Planning Commission. The board took up the delay after the county attorney advised that a moratorium on data center approvals wouldn't be legal. A final vote is expected next month, Bisnow reported.
Virginia has also proposed new rules targeting data center power costs. Local pushback isn't limited to Virginia. Google's planned AI hub in Visakhapatnam, India, faces opposition over water, power, and jobs.
Amazon is still spending on data centers
Amazon has invested more than $63 billion in Loudoun County since 2011, Weissman said. In 2023, the company announced plans to invest another $35 billion in data center campuses across Virginia by 2040. This month, 3M gave Amazon a stock warrant tied to as much as $6 billion of data center purchases.
Amazon reports third-quarter results on October 29. Analysts on average expect earnings of $1.98 a share on revenue of $202.2 billion, Yahoo Finance data show. Amazon shares closed at $248.00 on October 23.
