After zoning approval, data center developer pays $33M for 1,200 acres in Hanover

Denver-based developer Tract recently acquired a 1,200-acre site outside Ashland with plans to prepare the site for the construction of data centers. The company rezoned the area shown in red earlier this year ahead of the sale. (BizSense file)

A massive data center project is another step closer to powering up in Hanover County.

Development company Tract recently closed on the acquisition of a 1,200-acre assemblage near Ashland, where the Colorado firm intends to set the stage for dozens of data center facilities on multiple campuses.

Tract spent $32.7 million to buy the land along Hickory Hill Road east of Interstate 95 from three sellers, according to Hanover court records.

The undeveloped land was most recently assessed at a combined $7.1 million, according to online property records.

The sellers in the transfer of the six-parcel project site, which took place in several transactions in late April and early May, were Blenheim Associates, South Wales Farm LLC and Tjitse Jozef De Wolff.

The land deals followed the Board of Supervisors vote in March to approve a rezoning request needed for the project.

Tract buys and prepares properties for development as data centers. The firm plans to handle the construction of infrastructure needed for the future data centers and then sell off pieces of the assemblage to other companies, which would build their own data center facilities.

Though the Hanover site has attracted interest, Tract isn’t currently marketing its newly acquired land for sale.

“There has been inbound interest, but at this point, the land is not for sale as we are in the investment period to advance the infrastructure, roads and energy,” Tract spokesman Doug Freeman said in an email.

Freeman said Tract anticipates it will spend $50 million to $100 million to install water and sewer utilities, roads and conduct other work needed to make the property site-ready.

A conceptual plan of Tract’s planned 1,200-acre data center project. Development, which is expected to take the form of multiple campuses, would be located in the yellow areas. (BizSense file)

Tract representatives have said they expect that 10% to 12% of the project area’s acreage would be occupied by the actual data center buildings and associated facilities like substations.

Company Chief Investment Officer Graham Williams previously told BizSense he expects that the property could handle 9 million square feet of data center facilities across 30 buildings on multiple campuses. A traffic study tied to the project’s approved zoning request was based on an assumption of 46 buildings at the project site. The final scope of the development will depend on how future operators develop the site.

The development, which is expected to see its first data center facilities built as soon as 2028, is anticipated to be able to support a power capacity of 2.4 gigawatts.

Tract’s project is one of several other data center developments in the works across the Richmond region.

California-based Province Group is seeking zoning approval for a 1.5 million-square-foot data center project on 120 acres in eastern Powhatan County. In Chesterfield, data center operator Chirisa is planning new facilities at Meadowville Technology Park.

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