Amazon drops Ashburn data centre plan and gives Loudoun about 25 acres

Amazon paid $427 million for 122 acres in March. It will give the county about 25 acres that Chair Phyllis Randall values at $65 million, plus $5 million for housing. The chair says Amazon will also rezone the rest.

Amazon paid $427 million in March for a campus in Ashburn, Virginia. It has now agreed to withdraw its data centre application for the site.

The case for a data centre there by right, meaning allowed without a vote of the Board of Supervisors, now ends in a land transfer and a donation. The company will hand the county about 25 acres, a fifth of the 122 acre campus. Data Center Dynamics reports a further $5 million for housing.

Chair Phyllis Randall values the land at $65 million. That makes about $70 million of land and cash, or 16 percent of the $427 million price.

The campus and its zoning rules

The site is the former George Washington University Science and Technology Campus. Data Center Dynamics (DCD) reports that Amazon Data Services bought the 122 acre campus for $427 million.

The deal was a five year sale leaseback. The university stays as a tenant while it relocates. DCD says the structure also gave Amazon time to secure planning permission.

The plan Amazon filed was a four building campus of 800,000 square feet, known as the Bridgefield Tech Center.

Supervisor Juli Briskman's April release says the property is still subject to the 1972 Zoning Ordinance. That rule treats data centres as a by right office use, because of agreements tied to the Route 28 Tax District. That is the by right reading Supervisor Briskman describes: Amazon would not have needed legislative approval from the Board.

Briskman's release says Amazon paid four times the assessed value, which implies a tax value near $107 million. She wrote that it was "reasonable to believe" Amazon intended to pursue data centre development. She said she and the Board had sent a clear and consistent message that this was not the right place for data centres.

Loudoun had already closed that door for newer land. Briskman noted that by right data centres were removed for future developments, and in 2023 from the zoning district that covers this campus. The campus stayed outside those changes because of the 1972 rule.

Then the county pushed back. Early in October, staff told the Board of Supervisors about a zoning determination. It found that data centres were not permitted as a primary use on the property, so Amazon would need more county approval.

Josh Weissman, Amazon's vice president for data center capacity delivery, said the company sees the property's legal development potential differently from the county. He added that Amazon concluded a shared vision was better than costly litigation. He also noted that Amazon has built in partnership with Loudoun for 20 years.

The Board's pause was not the lever. On 20 October the Board deferred a resolution to pause consideration of legislative applications for data centres and substations. The item moves to its second business meeting in November.

A by right project needs no legislative application, so a pause would not have reached it. The county's leverage was the zoning determination, and Amazon agreed to forgo legal action.

What Amazon agreed to give the county

Randall announced the deal at the Board's 20 October meeting, Loudoun Now reports. She also posted it on Facebook. Amazon will dedicate roughly 25 acres to the county and forgo any legal action.

Randall put the fair market value of those parcels at approximately $65 million. She said her goal in the talks was to disallow any data centres or infrastructure that could support them on the property.

Randall wrote that the parcels suit a new community arts centre and an indoor sports facility. Randall also promised design charrettes and town halls on that plan. She thanked Amazon for its willingness to meet and engage.

The rezoning of the rest of the campus is a promise, not a decision. Randall's post says Amazon commits to rezone it for mixed use and housing, including attainable and market rate homes. Data Center Dynamics says the same.

Loudoun Now says the county will fast track a rezoning application for mixed use. It adds that data centres will not be permitted there. WTOP quotes Supervisor Matt Letourneau saying the Board is not committing to approve the rezoning. So the Board, not Amazon or the chair, decides whether that land is rezoned.

The $65 million is the chair's valuation, rather than an appraisal. Data Center Dynamics adds a $5 million donation to the county's housing fund, which her post does not mention.

Per acre, the county's valuation sits below the purchase rate. At about $3.5 million an acre, 25 acres would have cost about $87.5 million. The chair's $65 million is about 26 percent lower.

That 26 percent gap says little about the market. The parcels are ones the chair wants for civic use, so the figure is the county's valuation, not a price. On Briskman's 120 acres the purchase rate is $3.6 million an acre and the gap is 27 percent.

The remaining land and next zoning decisions

Amazon keeps about 97 acres, which complicates any estimate of its loss. The chair says the rezoning will allow mixed use and housing on that land. Nobody has published its value, so the deal does not show whether Amazon lost money overall.

Loudoun's rules have started to tighten. Data Center Dynamics reports that officials have already removed data centres as a by right zoning option. Officials are exploring removing that status from sites grandfathered in earlier, meaning sites that kept their older rights.

Moratoriums are being considered at county and state level. The grandfathering change and the moratoriums are still proposals, and the Board's September vote was only to consider a pause.

Amazon's exit shows what a by right claim was worth once county staff tested it. The claim ended as about $70 million of land and cash, 16 percent of the $427 million price.

The sale leaseback shows who carried the risk. The university took its $427 million and gets five years to move. The buyer took the risk that permission to build would be refused.

Loudoun's Phase 2 data centre standards go to the Board for a review of draft amendments in December 2026. A Planning Commission hearing follows in February 2027. The county's page lists conditional use guidance, substations and energy generation on the site among the topics.

The county lists both dates as anticipated. County staff tested Amazon's claim. The Board will write the rules for the next site. Its rezoning of Amazon's remaining 97 acres carries no promise of approval.