After thumbs down from commission, developer withdraws, plans to refile 700-acre Chesterfield data center proposal

While Tract has withdrawn its rezoning request for a proposed data center project in southeastern Chesterfield, the company intends to file a new application for the project. (BizSense file)

Following a negative review by the Chesterfield Planning Commission, the company behind a proposed data center campus has withdrawn the project, with plans to come up with a new approach.

Denver-based development firm Tract on Tuesday pulled its zoning application that would have set the stage for a data center park on 744 acres at 16100 Branders Bridge Road.

But the company isn’t giving up on the project entirely.

Tract said it is planning to file a new application to facilitate the development, which commissioners unanimously recommended for denial last month.

Tract didn’t provide specifics about how it would amend its proposal, but said it would be adjusted in response to feedback from the commission meeting. The company plans to refile the project in a matter of months.

“We have withdrawn our application for the Chesterfield project to address specific feedback we have received, including greater alignment with the County’s long term transportation goals. We are confident we can make appropriate modifications to address the County’s feedback and intend to resubmit the application in the coming months,” Tract said in a statement Tuesday.

Tract had previously projected that the Branders Bridge development could have featured up to 11 data center facilities totaling about 2 million square feet. The development was planned to occupy about 350 acres of the overall site, according to a conceptual plan.

At last month’s meeting, Commissioner Gib Sloan said he couldn’t support the project in part due to traffic safety concerns, and that Tract didn’t propose sufficient road infrastructure improvements.

The project that was presented last month would have included two vehicular access points on Branders Bridge Road. Also proposed were new turn lanes and widening on Branders Bridge.

Sloan also said Chesterfield officials didn’t have a clear enough idea of how the site would be developed. Tract’s business model involves acquiring land and constructing infrastructure needed for a data center development, and then selling off portions of the site to other companies that would build data center facilities there.

Any new project proposal from Tract would be reviewed by the Planning Commission before a final vote by the Board of Supervisors.

Though Tract’s Chesterfield project hit a hurdle, the developer continues to prepare a 1,200-acre site in Hanover for a data center campus. A Tract representative said earlier this year that infrastructure and internal access at that site is anticipated to finish in 2026 or 2027.

Tract’s change of course in Chesterfield follows the recent unveiling of potential new restrictions on data centers that would be included in county’s zoning ordinance, which is undergoing a major rewrite.

But not all data center projects have hit speed bumps in Chesterfield of late. Last week, county supervisors approved a fixed tax rate agreement for two EDA-initiated data center projects planned in the western part of the county.

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