Denver firm Tract seeks to rezone 700-plus acres for data center park in Chesterfield

Development firm Tract is seeking zoning approval for a data center park on more than 700 acres in Chesterfield. (Google Maps)

A Denver-based firm is eyeing hundreds of acres in southeast Chesterfield for a data center campus.

Development company Tract recently filed a rezoning application to allow the construction of potentially 11 data center facilities with a total of about 2 million square feet on more than 700 acres just outside Colonial Heights. The assemblage includes 16100 Branders Bridge Road and multiple other parcels.

A conceptual plan for the project depicts three “development area” sites on the property as well as four potential sites for substations. The project would feature buffers and other measures intended to lessen the development’s environmental impacts, and company spokeswoman Julia Kendall said most of the project site would be undeveloped.

“(The site) provides for thoughtful and effective buffers and setbacks to minimize site line impacts and ensure noise statutes are fully met. We are still working on the final site plan, but our experience tells us that less than 20% of the site will be developed as data center footprint, leaving significant green space intact,” she said in an email last week.

Tract is seeking to rezone the land to General Industrial (I-2) from the current Agricultural (A) designation. The company has proffered that the property’s permitted uses would be limited to data centers and related facilities, and that building heights would be limited to 110 feet.

The site would have no more than two vehicle entrances on Branders Bridge, and the project would involve road improvements like widening Branders Bridge along the site’s frontage.

The assemblage consists of about 740 acres and has an assessed value of $1.2 million, per online records. Tract has the property under contract. The land, which is located between Branders Bridge Road and Swift Creek, is owned by an LLC tied to Tony Lucas, who owns Chesterfield-based general contractor Shoosmith Construction.

A conceptual plan of the proposed data center park. (County documents)

A portion of the Fall Line trail, a pedestrian-and-bike path that’s currently being established between Ashland and Petersburg, is proposed to cut through part of the property and then continue along Branders Bridge. Tract’s project would allow for that section of the trail as a proffered condition.

Tract’s business model is to acquire land and then handle the construction of infrastructure, like roads and utilities, needed for a data center park. The firm then looks to sell portions of the site to other companies that build the data center facilities.

Tract said it typically spends $50 million to $100 million to prepare a site for further development, but that the Chesterfield site’s needs were still being studied.

The proposal must go before the Chesterfield Planning Commission for review, followed by consideration of the Board of Supervisors for a final approval. Dates for those meetings have not yet been scheduled, Kendall said.

The zoning request was filed in November. A community meeting on the proposal was held last week. Jeff Geiger of Hirschler is representing Tract in its zoning request.

The Chesterfield project comes in the wake of Tract’s successful effort last year to rezone 1,200 acres in Hanover for a data center campus. The company acquired that project site in the spring for $32.7 million. Kendall said that permitting for the Hanover site is underway, and that infrastructure and internal access at the site is anticipated to finish in 2026 or 2027.

Tract’s Chesterfield data center campus would rise next to another large development that’s been years in the making. Chester Solar Technology Park is in the works on an adjacent 1,700-acre assemblage. The project by Colorado-based Torch Clean Energy and New York-based D. E. Shaw Renewable envisions a mixture of solar energy and data center facilities on the property and secured zoning approval in 2019.

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