Petersburg, Virginia Approves Four Data Center Projects, Including $1.1 Billion Campus

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Petersburg, Virginia, has approved construction applications for four data center projects, which do not require land use rezoning procedures due to local zoning regulation amendments. The relevant progress was disclosed in council documents obtained by Richmond Biz Sense under the Freedom of Information Act. In 2024, the city revised its zoning rules, designating data centers as a "by-right" use in industrial zones, meaning official rezoning approval is not required. Consequently, these four applications bypass the series of council hearings and public meetings associated with rezoning.

One of the projects, advanced by NuVu, plans to build a three-building data center campus on a parcel of land between Interstate 95 and County Drive in Petersburg, with an estimated cost of up to $1.1 billion. According to a statement from NuVu to Richmond Biz Sense, the data center will be powered by clean energy and connected to Dominion Energy's grid via a newly constructed substation. The company stated that the data center will use a closed-loop water system to avoid impacting the local water supply.

At other locations in Petersburg, Menlo Digital, a data center platform launched last year and operated by real estate investor Menlo Equities, is building a four-building data center campus on a 74-acre site at 2255 Jamestown Drive. Plans indicate that the campus, once fully operational, can provide 104 megawatts of capacity, powered by a 300-megawatt substation built on-site. Menlo Digital labels this site as MD-VA3 on its website.

Wagner Properties is constructing a data center at 1161 Wagner Road. The Warrenton Group plans to build a six-building, 175-acre data center campus at 2233 Halifax Road.

The zoning regulations amended by Petersburg two years ago allow data centers as a "by-right" use in M-1 light industrial zones and M-2 heavy industrial zones.