Amazon is looking to add an industrial park near Dulles International Airport to its network of Northern Virginia data centers.
Amazon Data Services has applied for air pollution control permits from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to allow data center facilities at 13860 and 13876 Redskin Drive in Renaissance Technology Park, a warehouse complex just east of Route 28 in the Floris area of Herndon.
The Washington Business Journal first reported Amazon’s plans based on a letter that the company requested from Fairfax County today (Friday) to confirm that the facilities will comply with the property’s zoning.
Starwood Capital Group proposed redeveloping the nearly 60-acre Renaissance Park with four data centers buildings in 2021. The property is currently built out with seven warehouses whose tenants include a gymnastics center and countertop store.
The data center buildings would be constructed in phases, starting with a three-story data center building with a maximum height of 102 feet, a 6-acre electrical substation and a guardhouse. The 2.1 million square feet of proposed development also included a 3,000-square-foot security building and a 2,800-square-foot water storage building.
The other data center buildings would be built based on “market conditions,” per a staff report for the special exception application, which was approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on July 19, 2022.
County staff are now reviewing a site plan for the first phase of development that was submitted this past May. Building permit applications have also been submitted for Amazon’s two buildings, one of which was approved in February and another that’s still under review, according to the WBJ.
Amazon’s application to DEQ, a copy of which was sent to the county, says its data centers are compatible with “the integrated land use approach” envisioned for the site in Fairfax County’s comprehensive plan, which allows “a variety of industrial uses.”
Amazon is a committed local partner in proper planning and development that collectively contributes to positive economic and social impact. Recognizing our role as an economic and social partner, Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy and also focuses locally on building long-term, innovative programs that have a lasting impact through investments in workforce development, STEM and computer science. Amazon’s data centers are an important class of infrastructure and are designed and built for resilience requiring on-site emergency back-up power generation.
Concerns about the environmental and neighborhood impacts of the region’s growing data center industry led the Board of Supervisors to approve new regulations on Sept. 10, setting standards for possible locations, noise levels, visual screening and more.
At that time, county staff said they had six pending applications for data centers under review, two of which would fall short of the new requirements. At least three applications were for sites in Floris, including the Renaissance Park building at 13860 Redskin Drive.
According to the WBJ, Amazon also has ties to Perspecta’s “in progress” data center campus in Chantilly and Amazon Web Services Loisdale Station in Springfield. AWS also has three existing data centers in Chantilly.
