Hourigan paid $58M for Henrico land, then sold it the same day for $119M

A rendering of the data centers planned for the site in Varina. (BizSense file photo)

It turns out the $58 million, 400-acre purchase Hourigan made on July 1 in eastern Henrico was a stepping stone to a larger, nine-figure data center deal. 

The local development and general contracting firm turned around and sold the same acreage on the same day to QTS Data Centers for nearly $119 million, Henrico County records show. 

The 400-acre plot at 3250 and 3555 E. Williamsburg Road in Varina is part of a larger, 622-acre assemblage where Hourigan had been planning a massive industrial and data center park. QTS had already owned the remaining 220 adjacent acres following a $17.3 million purchase in December 2023.  

With QTS now in control of the entire expanse, the data center giant is expected to take the lead on developing the industrial park, according to Hourigan CEO Mark Hourigan. The park would be a second phase to the nearby White Oak Technology Park.

Hourigan said he couldn’t comment on why the deal was structured as it was, with both his firm’s purchase and the sale to QTS closing on the same day.

Hourigan led the effort to rezone the land to allow for uses such as data centers, offices and manufacturing facilities, and worked out agreements with Henrico County to provide utilities to the site, but ultimately decided against developing the entire project.

Mark Hourigan

“Development plans change over time as activity and events happen,” Hourigan said. “We had a number of people that were very interested in that land and ultimately we ended up structuring a deal with QTS.”

Many of the details around the new industrial park remain unknown – things like how many square feet are planned, when work would begin and whether any users are lined up. A spokesperson for the Kansas-based company said in a statement that “QTS looks forward to expanding our footprint in the Richmond area to meet growing demand from our customers in the market.”

“QTS is investing in this region as a long-term partner and will continue to work with the counties where we operate to ensure growth is additive to the area,” the spokesperson continued.

QTS already has a substantial presence at White Oak, with around 3 million square feet of data center space on the hundreds of acres it owns at the tech park. White Oak is also home to QTS’s “Richmond Network Access Point,” a hub for multiple subsea fiber cables connected from Africa, South America and Europe. QTS touts that the RNAP cables provide some of the fastest internet connection on the planet.

At $118.8 million, Hourigan’s sale to QTS was the highest-priced real estate deal recorded in the Richmond region so far this year.

It’s the second nine-figure industrial deal Hourigan’s closed in recent years. In 2022 the company sold a Lowe’s-anchored warehouse it developed in the Deepwater Industrial Park for $128 million, and last year it sold two other warehouses at the same Southside center for $40 million. 

While he couldn’t comment on QTS’s plans in Varina, Hourigan did say that his firm is still planning to raze the Southern States silos in Manchester to make way for a 20-story mixed-use development, but that current financial markets have put the project on hold. 

“Like so many other development deals right now, they’ve got to pencil and make sense. With the financing and leasing markets right now, it’s not the right time for that,” he said. “We’ll certainly look for opportunities to bring that development forward in any way that we can, but nothing’s happening right now on that one.”

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