Richmond`s Data Center Boom Is Outpacing The Nation — But Backlash Is Also Building

The same factors that ignited its boom — cheap land, grid access and political will — are starting to generate friction. Power is tightening. Labor is limited. And after a blitz of megaprojects, residents and local officials are beginning to push back, reshaping the region’s once-permissive development environment.

That comes as a wave of new data centers is slated for the Richmond area and as growth accelerates amid mounting power constraints in Northern Virginia, the world’s largest data center market.

With power and land in short supply around the region`s Data Center Alley, developers are moving south along the Interstate 95 fiber corridor toward Richmond. The result, Avison Young says, is a “string of pearls” of large-scale data centers rising in rural counties like Henrico, Louisa, Chesterfield and Hanover — places that, until recently, had seen little to no digital infrastructure.

By contrast, southern Virginia offers developers greater access to grid power and, where utility connections lag, the ability to tap natural gas infrastructure for on-site generation, said Howard Berry, Avison Young’s national director of data center solutions.

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RSK: I haven`t heard much feedback on the proposed data center in the DeForest area but these are universal concerns. Centers that can self generate power on their own will soon be the new norm.